148 Notices and Descriptions of various New [Feb. 



moult. This is the common Himalayan Blackbird of the lower ranges, 

 or what is termed the sub-Himalayan region. 



17. M. albocincta, (Royle) ; figured by the name albicollis on Royle's 

 plate, which name was previously applied by Vieillot to a Brazilian 

 species : Turdus collaris, Sorel, Rev. Zool, 9 1840, p. 2. Size and pro- 

 portions of the last species : the male black, tinged with brown under- 

 neath ; throat and fore-neck white, surrounding the ear-coverts, and 

 forming a broad collar round the neck : bill yellow, with dusky tip ; and 

 legs yellowish. Female brown, paler below; the collar greyish-brown, 

 and throat white with some dusky spots, and a line of the same from 

 the corner of the lower mandible. The White-collared Blackbird is 

 confined to a greater elevation on the Himalaya than the preceding 

 species. 



18. 31. nigropileus, (de la Fresnaye) ; described in M. Adolphe 

 Delessert's Souvenirs d y un Voyage de I'Inde, Pt. II, p. 27. Length 

 about ten inches, of wing five, and tail four ; bill to gape an inch 

 and a quarter, and to forehead an inch ; and tarse an inch and three- 

 sixteenths. Cap, including lores and cheeks, black ; chin washed with 

 the same : the back and rump, wings, and tail, dark fuscous-ashy, tinged 

 with brown on the interscapularies : the neck all round, and the under- 

 pays, ashy-brown, paler on the belly, and passing to white at the 

 vent : under tail-coverts mingled white and ashy : bill, and apparently 

 round the eye, yellow; and legs yellowish-brown. Female altogether 

 paler, the white of the vent spreading over much of the abdominal 

 region, and the cap dusky-brown instead of black. Inhabits the 

 Neilgherries, and is occasionally met with on the eastern ghats. 



19. M. brachypus, nobis: Black-crowned Thrush, Latham, from 

 Ceylon. This bird is almost exactly similar to the female of the last, 

 except that the dark cap is less pronounced, and the abdominal region 

 and under tail-coverts are merely pale: but the tarse is remarkably 

 short, not exceeding an inch ; and the tail is perfectly squared, whilst 

 in M. nigropilea its outermost feathers are three-eighths of an inch 

 shorter than the middle ones. These two characters are so marked 

 that I have no doubt of its distinctness. It was obtained, I believe, in 

 the Neilgherries, by Mr. Jerdon. 



20. M. simillima, (Jerdon), Madr. Journ. No. XXV, 253. Smaller 

 than the English Blackbird, with longer bill, and yellow legs : the 



