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brown, on the upper parts, and the pale sub-terminal spots or bars are much darker and consequently 
much less conspicuous, those on the crown being pale russet-brown instead of buff. 
Mr. Doherty gives the soft parts as follows :—“ Iris dark chestnut; maxilla blackish ; mandible 
grey, ochreous at base; feet pale dirty brownish." 
From all the other species іп the sub-genus Oreocincla it may be distinguished by its extra pair 
of tail-feathers (14 instead of 12); but as nothing is more common than the loss of two or more 
tail-feathers, an independent diagnosis is necessary. 
The smallness of the white patch at the end of the inner web of the outermost tail-feathers 
sufficiently distinguishes it from б. heinii, б. papuensis, and G. cuneata, which have much more white, 
and from С. imbricata, which has none at all on the outer rectrices. 
Тһе pale tusset-brown sub-terminal bars across the feathers of the crown distinguish it from 
G. varia and G. dawma, in which they are much paler, and from G. heinii, 6. cuneata, and 
С. lunulata, in which they are obsolete. 
The comparative shortness of the tail distinguishes it from G. lunulata, G. macrorhyncha, and 
G. cuneata. 
'The general colour of the upper parts being russet-brown and not olive-brown distinguishes it 
from 6. varia, G. dauma, G. cuneata, 6. lunulata, and 6. imbricata ; but as this character varies to 
some extent, fresh-moulted birds of the year being most russet, and abraded adults most olive, 
it must be accepted with due regard to age and season. 
None of these characters serve to distinguish G. horsfieldi from G. nilgiriensis, which may 
possibly be its nearest ally, in spite of the difference in the number of the tail-feathers. 
G. nilgiriensis, when fully adult, has a larger bill and Ше Geocichline patches on the inner 
webs of the quills are white, whilst those of G. horsfieldi, so far as is known, are always buff; but as 
this character is not always constant in G. dauma, it may possibly vary also in G. horsfieldi, in which 
case the only difference between the Javan and the South-Indian species seems to be the number of 
tail-feathers. 
Dr. Vian, in his “Notice sur les Merles du genre Oréocincle " (Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1880, 
p. 222), denies that the Javan bird has fourteen tail-feathers, and refuses to admit any specific 
distinction between Geocichla horsfieldi, б. lunulata, and G. heinii. ‘There can be no doubt that, 
both on the question of fact and on that of opinion, he is entirely wrong. 
In its supplementary characters the species scarcely differs from Geocichla imbricata. 
The Plate is drawn life-size from an example in my collection bought from a dealer, and 
represents an adult in excellent plumage. The figure in the fifth volume of the ‘Catalogue of the 
Birds in the British Museum’ represents a slightly faded example, which is the type of Turdus varius 
of Horsfield, of Oreocincla horsfieldi of Bonaparte, and of Oreocincla malayana. of Sundevall. 
