1848.] Notes on the Nidification of Indian Birds, 685 



The situation in which the nest is placed is quite unlike that of any- 

 other of our Hill Thrushes with which I am acquainted, and the hahits 

 of the bird render it far more deserving of the name of Petrocossyphus 

 or " Rock blackbird" than those to which, in the Catalogue of Mr. 

 Hodgson's Collection, Mr. Gray has assigned that name. Indeed, as 

 applied to the two preceding species, it is altogether a misnomer, for 

 they are, in the first place, — not Blackbirds or Meridce, as the Greek 

 word " Cossyphus" implies, — and in the second place, they are not 

 Rock lovers at all, but true forest birds, building in trees and taking 

 their food upon the ground, where they find it in berries and insects 

 among the withered leaves which they expertly turn over with their 

 beaks, and hence the reason why the beak is almost invariably clotted 

 with mud or other dirt. I have never seen these Geocichlse except in 

 woods, — whereas " Myophonus Temminckii" is as often found in open 

 rocky spots on the skirts of the forest, as among the woods, loving to 

 jump upon some stone or rocky pinnacle, from whence he sends forth 

 a sort of choking chattering song, if such it can be called, — or with an 

 up jerk of the tail, hops away with a loud musical whistle, very much 

 after the manner of the British Blackbird (M. vulgaris)* On the 

 southern side of the range at Jerrepanee, elevation about 5,000 ft. the 

 forest is open and scattered among immense bare blocks of stone ; — on 

 the northern side of the same range, the forest is dense and contains 

 much underwood. It is remarkable that while the Geocichlae above 

 noticed, are strictly confined to the close forest tracts of the northern 

 side, — Petrocossyphus cinclorhynchus (Gray's Cat.) affects the rocky 

 southern forest ; I have however occasionally seen the latter on the 

 northern side also, but I cannot call to mind a single instance in which 

 I have seen either Geocichla citrina or G, unicolor on the southern 

 side. This fact will at once show how little applicable to the latter 

 birds is Mr. Gray's name of Petrocossyphus. Mr. Gray may possibly 

 reply to my criticism by asking — ■" what's in a name ?" To which I 

 must respond that in natural history, as with man, a good name is most 

 important, and ought as much as possible to convey some idea of habits, 



* The sweet songster to which Mr. Vigne alludes, as being heard by him, was 

 not this bird, whose song, if such it can be called, is nothing but a subdued grating 

 chatter, as if singing to itself; the song heard by Mr. Vigne was that of Merula 

 bculboul, by far the sweetest songster in the Hills. 



