MERULA BOULBOUL. 



Grey-wing-ed Merula. 



harms boulboul, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. 80. — lb. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 48. — Shaw, Gen. ZooL, vol. vii. p. 308. 

 Merula boulboul, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xvi. p. 47.— lb. Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc Calcutta, 



p. 162.— Horsf. and Moore, Cat. of Birds in Mus. East Ind. Comp., vol. i. p. 196. 

 Turclus pcecilopterus, Vig. in Proc. of Comm. of Sci. and Corr. of Zool. Soc, part i. p. 54.— Gould, Cent, of Birds 



from Him. Mount., pi. xiv— Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 219.— Gray, Cat. of Spec, and 



Draw, of Mamm. and Birds pres. to Brit. Mus. by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., p. 81.— Bonap. Consp. 



Gen. Av., p. 274. 



It is much to be regretted that this well-marked species of Merula should have received not only the trivial, 

 but also the scientific name of boulboul, since, to British ornithologists, another and very different group of 

 birds is better known by this appellation ; but it now appears that Latham's specific term of boulboul has 

 the priority over the poecilopterus of Vigors, and no alteration is admissible. It is one of the species figured 

 by me in my " Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains." A splendid male is now, and has been 

 for a long time, living in the menagerie of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park. This individual has 

 all the habits of the English Blackbird, bears its confinement equally well, and as spring approaches serenades 

 its caged brethren and the visitors with its cheerful song. After it has completed its moult, the feathers of 

 the breast, which are most perfect, are regularly and elegantly fringed with grey, in which character it 

 much resembles the Ring Ouzel, Merula torguata; it differs, however, from that species in its shorter 

 wings, in which respect it is allied to our Common Blackbird, the Merula vulgaris, which it may be said 

 to represent in the hill countries of India, that is, the southern slopes of the great Himalayan range, where 

 it frequents similar districts to those tenanted by the M. albocincta and M. castanea. 



Much difference occurs in the colouring of the wings, some individuals having the secondaries and coverts 

 very light, almost approaching to greyish white, while in others those parts are greyish white, strongly 

 tinged with brown. This wing-mark is much less distinct in the female, which sex, moreover, differs from 

 the opposite one in being of an almost uniform brown, offering a strong contrast to the deep black colour- 

 ing of the male. 



The male has the entire plumage black, with the exception of the feathers of the breast and abdomen 

 being finely fringed with grey, and the greater wing-coverts and the outer webs of the secondaries being 

 ashy grey, with purer grey tips ; bill and eyelash very rich gamboge-yellow ; irides brownish black ; legs 

 and feet brownish black, with a tinge of yellow behind and on the soles. 



The figures are of the natural size. The plant is the Rubus biflorus. 





