GEOCICHLA CYANONOTA (Jard. § Selby). 
WHITE-THROATED GROUND-THRUSH. 
Turdus cyanotus, Jard. & Selby, Ill. Orn. i. pl. xlvi. (1828). 
Geocichla cyanotus, Blyth, Cat. В. Mus. A. S. Beng. p. 168 (1849). . 
Geocichla cyanonotus, Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 172 (1881). 
G. suprà claré schistacea: tectricibus alarum medianis albo terminatis: pileo aurantiaco-castaneo: pectore 
aurantiaco: gulá albá. 
Tuis species breeds in Central and Southern India at various elevations from 2000 to 4000 feet above 
sea-level, as far north as Behar (about latitude 24°), whence there are examples in the British Museum 
collected by Hodgson. Its range extends south-east to the Chota Nagpur Hills (Ball, Stray Feathers, 
1874, p. 407), and south-west to Dapuli, south of Bombay (Vidal, in Hume's Nests and Eggs of 
Indian Birds, ii. p. 98). Further south it breeds in the Wynaad (Jerdon, Madras Journal, 1839, 
p.254). It has been obtained in Malabar by Captain McPherson (Blyth, Cat. Birds Mus. As. Soc. 
p. 163) and in Travancore (Bourdillon, Stray Feathers, 1876, p. 398). 
Mr. A. О. Hume, in his ‘Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds’*, gives the following summary of 
the observations made by Indian field-naturalists on the nesting of the present species :— 
“Mr. С. W. Vidal writes :— This species is plentiful about Dapuli in the Southern Konkan. 
It breeds in the gardens about the station in June, July, and August. І have not myself taken the 
eggs of this species, but Mr. A. Jardine of Dapuli, who knows the birds well, and who at once 
recognized specimens in my collection, has taken a great many nests and has given me several eggs. 
He writes: “ The nest is made of roots, twigs, and grass, with a good deal of mud. Тһе egg-cavity 
is about five and a half inches in diameter, and from two to three inches deep. Тһе nestis generally 
placed in the fork of a tree low down. The highest I ever saw was about fifteen feet from the 
ground in a kinjal tree, but they are mostly found in mango trees. When the Thrushes have young, 
they will not let any one go near the nest, but come flying at you, and peck like fun." Тһе eggs 
vary greatly in colour and markings, presenting two or three very distinct types.' 
“Mr. J. Davidson, when bird-nesting on the Kondabhari Ghat, referring to the events of the 
14th July, says :— I also found a nest containing three nearly full-grown young and one addled egg 
of 6. cyanonota. This Thrush is not common here, and this seems, in this part of the country, about 
its northern limit, and it is only a migrant arriving in the rains; it is, however, common enough 
along the ridge running eastward from the Ghats immediately north of Nasik.’ 
“Mr. J. L. Darling, Jun., to whom I am indebted for the eggs of this species, has favoured me 
with the following note in regard to its nidification. He says :— The first nest that I found of the 
White-throated Ground-Thrush I took on Kulputty Hill, in the Wynaad (Malabar), at an elevation 
of about 2800 feet above the sea. It was placed in a small tree, in a fork about 11 feet from the 
ground, precisely in the same kind of situation as our Nilghiri Blackbird would choose. "The nest, 
too, was very like a Blackbird's—a foundation of leaves and sandy clay, the main body of the nest 
* Edit. E. W. Oates, vol. ii. pp. 98-100. 
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