COPSYCHUS MINDANENSIS. 



Malacca Dial Bird. 



Merle de Mindanao, Buff. Hist. Nat. des Ois., torn. iii. p. 387.- Id. PI. Enl., p. 627, fig. 1. 



Turdus mindanensis, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 823.— Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 353. 



Copsychus mindanensis, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xvi. p. 139.— Id. Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. 



Calcutta, p. 166.— Id. Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, vol. xx. p. 317.— Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., torn. i. 



p. 267.— Horsf. and Moore, Cat. of Birds in Mus. East Ind. Comp., vol. i. p. 278.— Moore in Proc. 



Zool. Soc., part xxii. p. 282.— Sclat. in Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 186. 

 Lanius musicus, Raffl. Trans. Linn. Soc, vol. xiii. p. 307. 

 Gryllivora magnirostra, Swains, in Lard. Cab. Cyc. Anim. in Menag., p. 291 ? 



intermedia, Id. ib., p. 291 ? 



— — rosea, Id. ib., p. 342 ? 



brevirostra, Id. ib., p. 292 ? 



Mindanao Thrush, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. iii. p. 69— Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. x. p. 250.— Lath. Gen. Hist, vol. v. p. 77. 



Choche, Malay, Blyth. 



Moorai or Moorai Kichou, Sumatra, Raffles. 



This species, to which I have given the trivial name of the Malaccca Dial Bird, is the representative in the 

 Malaccan Peninsula of the Dayal of India ; and if the above list of synonyms be correct, it will be seen that, 

 like that bird, it has attracted the notice of numerous ornithologists. Besides being a native of Malacca, 

 where it is common in the neighbourhood of Penang, it was also observed in Sumatra by the late Sir Thomas 

 S. Raffles, who gave it the specific appellation of musicus, a term which indicates that, like its near ally 

 (C. saularis), it is a beautiful songster. I have never yet seen examples of this bird from Mindanao or any 

 other of the Philippine Islands, nor do I believe that it is ever found there ; Gmelin's specific name of 

 mindanensis, therefore, is by no means an appropriate one. 



As might be expected, the sexes exhibit the same difference in their colouring which occurs in the 

 C. saularis, the female having the upper surface of a lighter hue, and the throat and breast grey instead of 

 black. 



The male has the head, all the upper surface, throat, chest, and upper half of the abdomen steely black ; 

 wings dull black, with the exception of the upper rows of coverts and the edges of the seventh and eighth 

 secondaries, which are pure white, forming a conspicuous stripe along the wing ; three outer tail-feathers 

 white, with an oblique mark of black on the base of the interior web, small on the first, larger and occupy- 

 ing a part of the base of the outer web of the second, and greatly increased on both webs of the third ; the 

 fourth feather black, with a white tip and a wedge-shaped mark of the same hue pointing backwards from 

 the white tip towards the base of the feather on the outer web ; the remaining tail-feathers wholly black ; 

 lower part of the abdomen and under tail-coverts white ; irides brown ; bill and legs black. 



The female differs in the upper surface being less intense in colour, and in the throat and chest being grey 

 instead of black. 



The Plate represents both sexes, of the size of life, on the Gordonia Javanica. 



