GEOCICHLA MARGINATA (Blyth). 
LESSER BROWN GROUND-THRUSH. 
Zoothera marginata, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xxi. p. 141 (1847). 
Geocichla marginata, Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 162 (1881). 
G. suprà olivascenti-brunnea, minimé transfasciata: supercilio pallido nullo. 
Tuis species was first described by Blyth in 1847 from examples obtained in Arakan by the late 
Sir A. Phayre in 1844. The types are still in the India Museum at Calcutta (cf. W. L. Sclater, 
Ibis, 1892, p. 81). 
G. marginata is closely allied to 6. monticola and 6. andromeda, but it also greatly resembles 
the female of С. sibirica. Its diagnostic characters are the length of the bastard-primary, which 
extends far beyond the primary-coverts, and the olive-brown colour of the upper surface. 
The range of the present species extends from the Eastern Himalayas south to Tenasserim. It 
has been found nesting in Sikhim (Oates's ed. Hume's Nests & Eggs Ind. B. ii. p. 109), and a fine 
series of specimens from this part of the Himalayas and Bhutan is in the Hume Collection. 1; was 
also obtained hy Griffith in the Khasia Hills (Blyth, Ibis, 1872, p. 89), the specimen having been 
wrongly recorded as from Afghanistan by Messrs. Horsfield and Moore (Cat. В. Mus. E. 1. Co. 
i p. 192), Colonel Godwin-Austen met with it in the Western Khasia Hills (7. A. S. Beng. 
xxxix. part 2, 1870, p. 268). Mr. Hume also procured a specimen and saw others on the Limatol 
range, and two on the higher ranges of Eastern Manipur (Stray Feathers, xi. p. 124). Its original 
capture in Arakan has been alluded to above, and the species has likewise been found in Karen-nee, 
where Major Wardlaw-Ramsay discovered it at a height of from 1500 to 3000 feet (Walden, in 
Blyth's B. Burm. p. 100). Mr. Oates states that he never met with this Ground-Thrush in Pegu 
(Handb. B. Brit. Burm. i. p. 8), but it was obtained by Davison at Pahpoon and Mount Mooleyit in 
Tenasserim, though it was rare there (Hume, Stray Feathers, vi. p. 246); and Colonel Bingham has 
only procured one specimen in the Thoungyeen Valley (Stray Feathers, ix. p. 177). А specimen 
collected by Mouhot in Siam is in the British Museum. 
So far as is known this species is a resident throughout its range, or its migrations are confined to 
the mountains where it breeds. It frequents low tree-jungle, and appears to be a very shy and silent 
bird. Colonel Tickell, in his manuscript work on Indian Ornithology previously mentioned as being 
in the library of the Zoological Society of London, states that he met with it on the muddy banks of 
a river, where it was busily searching for earthworms. Davison remarks that all the specimens he 
obtained were shot on the ground, where they were busy turning over dead leaves. Не found on 
dissection that their food consisted of insects of various sorts and their larve, together with small 
land-shells. 
Nests taken in Sikhim by Mandelli and Mr. Gammie at the end of May and the end of July 
were built from 8 to 10 feet from the ground, one of them in the fork of a slender tree and the other 
on a moss-covered leaning stem of a shrub which overhung a small stream in a densely shaded dell. 
The nest is described as a compact massive cup, the inside diameter rather more than 3 inches and 
the depth rather less than 2 inches. It was composed entirely of green moss felted very closely 
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