GEOCICHLA HORSFIELDI (Bp). 
HORSFIELD'S GROUND-THRUSH, 
Turdus varius (nec Pall.), Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 149 (1821). 
Turdus lunulatus (nec Lath.), Sundev. K. Vet.-Akad. Handl. Stockh. 1840, p. 37. 
Oreocincla horsfieldi, Bp. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1857, p. 205. 
Oreocincla malayana, Sundev. J. f. O. 1857, p. 161. 
Turdus malayanus, Gray, Hand-l. Birds, i. p. 254, по. 3688 (1871). 
Geocichla horsfieldi, Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 153, pl. x. (1881). 
G. suprà rufescenti-brunnea, nigro lunulata : rectricibus 14: pileo ochraceo variegato: remige secundá quintam 
haud :equante. 
. Tug present species is confined to Ше Island of Java, where it was discovered by Dr. Horsfield 
early in the present century. In his paper on the “ Systematic Arrangement and Description of Birds 
from the Island of Java," read before the Linnean Society on the 18th of April, 1820, he named this 
Thrush Turdus varius ; but whether he gave this name independently, or whether he was aware of 
Pallas's description of а Zurdus varius, and identified the Javan with the Siberian bird, is not known. 
Sundevall subsequently identified the species as Turdus lunulatus of Australia, but in his monograph 
of the genus Oreocincla, published in 1869, he recognized the species as distinct and called it 
0. malayana. In the same year Bonaparte also described it as O. horsfieldi, and this name has been 
generally recognized as having priority. 
Since Horsfield's time no notes on the habits of the bird have been published, and the species 
does not occur in Dr. Vordeman's excellent account of the birds of Batavia. Horsfield met with 
it only in one part of Java, in the thick forests which cover Mount Prahu, a volcanic peak, almost 
in the centre of the island, which rises 8500 feet above the level of the sea. High up on this 
mountain (between six and seven thousand feet) it was very abundant and easily caught by the 
natives, so that in the course of a few days he obtained a great number of specimens ; it was feeding 
on insects and worms. It has been recently obtained by Mr. Doherty in the hills of Lombok, 
between 3000 and 6000 feet (Hartert, Nov. Zool. iii. p. 555). Mr. А.Н. Everett also met with it 
at Son Karean, in the same island, at 5000 feet (Hartert, 7. c. р. 598). 
Geocichla horsfieldi is a very distinct species, resembling G. varia in having fourteen tail- 
feathers, but differing from its Palearctic ally in many important points. 
It may always be distinguished from @. varia by its smaller size. Wing 5:5 to 5:25 inches, 
tail 4-0 to 3:4 inches, culmen 1:22 to 1:12 inch, tarsus 1:35 inch. Outer tail-feather narrowly tipped 
with white, and half an inch shorter than the longest. 
It may also be distinguished from G. varia by its more rounded wing. The second primary 
is about equal to the sixth, sometimes a trifle shorter, sometimes a trifle longer. In G. varia 
the second primary is almost an inch longer than the sixth, and considerably longer than the 
fifth. 
In colour it is also quite different, being at all times much more of a russet-brown, not so olive- 
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