MERULA ERYTHROPLEURA (Sharpe). 
CHRISTMAS-ISLAND OUZEL. 
Turdus erythropleurus, Sharpe, P. 7. S. 1887, p. 515. 
Merula erythropleura, Lister, P. Z. S. 1888, p. 517 ; Sharpe, Monogr. Christmas Isl. р. 49 (1900). 
M. olivaceo-brunnea: rostro et pedibus flavis: subtüs aurantiaco-rufa, abdomine albo: gutture, przpectore et 
subalaribus cinerascentibus. 
Tuts species, which belongs to the group of rufous-flanked Ouzels, was discovered on Christmas 
Island, in the Indian Ocean, in 1886, during the survey of H.M.S. ‘ Flying Fish, under the command 
of Captain Maclear. In 1887 Mr. J. J. Lister also visited the island in H.M.S. * Egeria,' and he has 
given the following note on the species :—* This bird was common all through the bush: As one 
was examining rotten wood for beetles, &c., they would often come quite close and watch our 
operations with a bright curious eye, and Captain Aldrich has described how one of them picked a 
grub from his hand. I heard nothing that could be called a song. They often give a shrill sibilant 
note as they fly off, which may be followed by a chuck-chuck-chuck, and they often repeat a soft chick 
six or seven times, quickening at the finish." Mr. Lister found an old nestin the angle of a number 
ofascending branches of a sapling. It was made of decayed wood and leaf-mould, caked together into 
а tenacious mass, covered on the outside with a beautiful green moss-like Hepatica, which is 
common on the tree-trunks, and lined with the black hair-like palm-fibres made use of by the 
Zosterops for the same purposes. | 
Dr. C. W. Andrews, who spent nearly a ygar on Christmas Island, has given me the 
following note:—“ The Ground-Thrush is common everywhere, but is most numerous near the 
coast. Like the other birds of the island it is very tame, and when I was breaking up rotten wood, 
searching for beetles, several of them would stand quite close in readiness to pick up any grubs that 
were uncovered. Its food consists of insects, seeds, any carrion it can find, and I have seen one kill 
a small brown lizard, though it seemed to have some difficulty in doing so. When hunting for 
insects among the dead leaves, the colours of the plumage harmonize so exactly with the surroundings 
that, were it not for the bright yellow beak and eyelids, the bird would be almost invisible. The 
alarm cry is much like that of our Blackbird, and in the pairing-season (December to January) the 
male has a song something like that of the English Thrush, but harsher and less varied. 
“ The nest is made of fibres of the wild sago-palm (Arenga listeri), skeleton leaves, and other 
vegetable fibre; it is not mud-lined. One nest was taken from the crown of a screw-pine 
(Pandanus), another from the hollow top of a broken tree-trunk, some 15 feet from the ground. 
Eggs were found in December, and in the following month young birds just able to fly were 
numerous, and continued to be so till April." 
The clutches of eggs brought by Dr. Andrews are one, two, and three in number. The colour 
varies considerably, in that two eggs are so thickly mottled with rufous that the bluish-green ground- 
colour is almost entirely obscured, while another type is much more sparsely scattered with 
rufous-brown and underlying spots of Шас-атеу. Axis 1:2-1:25 inch; diam. 0:8-0:85. 
VOL. II. 2D 
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