WHITE'S GROUND-THRUSH. 203 



struck me as being of an allied species^ probably the Oreocincla. I went 

 back to the tree ; and on the bough where the nest had been were the 

 parent birds in trouble at their loss. I saw them distinctly, and recognized 

 them as being of this species." 



This nest, with two of the eggs, is now in my collection. It was built 

 on a fork on a horizontal pine-branch, and is about 2i inches deep inside, 

 and about 4 inches outside, 7 inches in outer and 41 inches in inner dia- 

 meter. The outside is composed of withered rushes, fine and coarse grass, 

 and moss, with an occasional twig and withered leaf, and plastered most 

 copiously ATith mud. Here and there are a few pieces of some green weed, 

 apparently conveyed in the mud from the swamps. The inside is lined 

 with a thick coating of mud, like the nests of our own Ring-Ouzel or Black- 

 bird ; and is then finally lined with fibrous rootlets, quite as coarse as those 

 the Magpie uses, and one or two pieces of sedgy grass. In general ap- 

 pearance the nest resembles most closely a common Magpie's without the 

 sticks — just the mere cup, and is far more coarsely made than the nests of 

 the true Thrushes. The eggs, greenish white with minute reddish spots, 

 were three, although most probably the full number had not been laid. 

 They resemble those of the Missel-Thrush ; but the ground-colour is slightly 

 paler, and the spots much finer, more numerous, and more evenly distri- 

 buted. They measure 1'2 inch in length and 0'9 inch in breadth. 



The whole upper plumage of White's Thrush, which is ochraceous brown, 

 and the under plumage, which is white, tinged with bufi^ on the breast, is 

 boldly marked with black crescentic spots. The wings are brown, margined 

 with buff; and the wing-coverts also are tipped with the same colour. The 

 tail, which is composed of fourteen feathers, has the four central ones 

 ochraceous brown, the rest dark brown, all more or less broadly tipped with 

 white. Bill brown above, pale below. Legs and feet yellowish brown. 

 Irides dark brown. The sexes are presumably the same. 



White's Thrush has many very near allies ; but most of them may at 

 once be distinguished by having only twelve tail-feathers. Two, however, 

 have fourteen tail-feathers : one {Geocichla hancii) is simply a greyer- 

 coloured bird, which may be regarded as little more than a local race 

 that has apparently become a resident in the island of Formosa ; the 

 other is an unquestionably good species [Geocichla ho7-sfieldi) , v/hich is a 

 resident in the island of Java. In this species the general colour of the 

 upper parts is ochraceous brown instead of olive-brown, and the pale 

 ochraceous brown subterminal spots, which are found in White's Thrush 

 on the feathers of both the head and back, are confined to the head only. 

 The wing, probably in consequence of its having ceased to migrate, has 

 become rounder, the second primary being intermediate in length between 

 the fifth and sixth, instead of between the fourth and fifth. 



