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PETKOCOSSYPHUS CYANUS. 



APPENDIX A. 



In finishing our article on the present species we were unable, owing to the want of time, to give any satis- 

 factory declaration as to its easterly range, and we were compelled to defer to a more leisure moment the 

 consideration of a very important discovery, as we believe, in connexion with this subject. We have to express 

 our thanks to the kind friends enumerated below, whose collections, placed most liberally at our disposal, have 

 furnished the material from which the results mentioned in this article have been deduced. Briefly, then, we shall 

 first state the conclusions at which we have arrived from a study of a splendid series of Blue Rock-Thrushes 

 from all parts of the world inhabited by these birds; and we will then lay before our readers an analysis of the 

 material examined, endeavouring to prove the correctness of our deductions in as concise a manner as possible. 

 In Mr. G. R. Gray's ( Hand-list of Birds/ which, at the time we are writing, may be regarded as the standard work 

 of reference for the general ornithologist (pt. i. p. 260), we find under his genus Turdus, in an unnamed section 

 (no. 955), three species of Blue Rock-Thrush mentioned; and we may state at once that Mr. Gray is apparently 

 right in considering that the Blue Rock-Thrush of Europe is not the type of the genus Petrocossyphus (if, 

 indeed, this genus is really separable from Monticola) ; for Boie, in his original description (Isis, 1826, p. 972), 

 only mentions P. saxatilis as the type of his genus, nor was it until two years later that he substituted 

 P. cyanus. For the use of such of our readers who may be interested in the present discussion, we add the 

 references to Mr. Gray's names, as follows : — ■ 



3805. cyanus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 296 (1766). 



solitarius, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 345 (1790, nee P. L. S. Miiller). 

 azureus, "Lebrun/' Crespon, Faun. Merid. p. 179 (1844). 

 cyaneus, p. 



3806. fandoo, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 87 (j). 

 maal, Sykes, loc. cit. p. 88 (?). 



longirostris, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xvii. p. 150 (1847). 

 affinis, Blyth, op. cit. xii. p. 177* (1843). 



3807. solitarius, P. L. S. Miiller, Natursyst. Suppl. p. 142 (1776). 

 manilla, Bodd. Tabl. PI. Enl. p. 39 (1783, ex PI. Enl. 636) f. 

 manillensis, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 833 (1788, ex PL Enl. 564. fig. 2, et 636). 

 cyaneus, var. d, Bl. 



We may without much question add P. longirostris of Blyth as a synonym of the ordinary Blue Rock- 

 Thrush of Europe (n. 3805), and we regard the other titles as all belonging to one and the same species : in a 

 word, we believe that there are only two species of Petrocossyphus, bearing respectively the names P. cyanus 

 (Linn.)- and P. solitarius (Miiller) ; and we will give our reasons for this supposition. We are not sure whether 

 we were the first to record in print the curious changes of plumage through which the Blue Rock-Thrush of 

 Europe passes before it attains its fully adult dress, but we have never seen any account of it in any previous 

 work, nor was it known to any of our ornithological friends ; but those stages of plumage are allowed to be 



t Mr. Gray likewise gives the name of olivaceus of Boddaert ; but this does not seem to be referable to the 

 present species. Boddaert founds his Turdus manilla on no. 636 of the ' Planches Enluminees,' but he makes 

 no mention at all of, and bestows no title on, fig. 2 of no. 564, doubtless recognizing it as precisely the same 

 as the bird figured in plate 636 (as is evidently the case) . But fig. 1, the Merle olive des grandes hides of 

 Montbeillard, is named by Boddaert (p. 33) Turdus olivaceus. 



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