- 908 
Тһе present species appears to have little or no song. Mr. Thomas Ayres says that it “ seldom 
utters a note, and might well be called the Silent Thrush ”; and Mr. Layard writes :—“ It utters no 
song, but only a short hurried cry when alarmed, and flies upward to the topmost branches of the 
thickest trees, amidst which it endeavours to conceal itself. If unsuccessful in this, it launches 
itself off, and makes for the nearest thicket—its voice and manner reminding the observer of the 
European Blackbird." 
In the Lydenburg district, writes Mr. T. Ayres, * these Thrushes inhabit the dense forest, and 
are most easily obtained in the dusk of the evening, when they appear to be more on the move than 
at other times, chasing each other about and often uttering their short clucking note. They feed on 
the ground amongst the dead leaves, insects forming their principal food." 
Andersson observes in his * Birds of Damara Land ” (p. 116) :— This is one of the commonest 
species in the Cape Colony, where it is partially migratory, being found most abundantly at the 
grape and fruit season. It is fond of almost all kinds of fruit, but when these fail, it subsists on 
beetles and other insects. Its flesh is well-tasted.” 
According to Mr. E. L. Layard, the nest is like that of the English Blackbird, and is lined with 
fibres and roots. “Тһе eggs, large for the size of the bird, are generally four in number, of a light 
verditer-blue, mottled with irregular patches of brown, thickest at the obtuse end. Axis 1:15 inch, 
diam. 0:85.” | 
Adult male. General colour above dark slaty-grey, with a slight olive tinge on the head and back ; 
the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts clearer slaty-grey; wing-coverts like the back, the 
bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills sepia-brown, externally slaty-grey ; tail black, the feathers 
slightly washed with slaty-grey on the edges; lores, sides of face, and ear-coverts dusky slaty-grey ; 
cheeks orange-buff, streaked with black spots along the malar line ; chin and upper throat white, 
tinged with buff, and streaked with rows of longitudinal black spots; lower throat and fore-neck dull 
ashy-grey, over which a slight tint of orange prevails, though the ashy shade scarcely reaches io the 
chest; rest of under surface from the chest downwards bright orange, a little paler towards the vent; 
lower flanks slightly washed with ashy; thighs pale orange; under tail-coverts white, with broad 
margins of olive-brown, the longer tail-coverts brown with a wedge-shaped spot of white at the end ; 
under wing-coverts and axillaries deep orange; quills dusky below, a little more ashy along the 
inner web: “bill yellow, brown towards the base and on the culmen; feet yellow; iris brown" 
(T. L. Ayres). Total length 9:5 inches, culmen 1:0, wing 5:25, tail 9:8, tarsus 1:35. 
There seems to be very little difference between the summer and winter plumages, but, as a rule, 
the stripes on the throat are broader during the breeding-season, and the grey on the fore-neck and 
chest is more distinctly seen, owing to the disappearance of the buff shade which overspreads it in 
the winter plumage. 
Young birds after the first moult are more olive-brown than the adults, and have a few rufous 
tips to the greater wing-coverts ; the throat is very sparsely streaked with blackish, and the grey on 
the chest is scarcely defined at all. 
Adult female. Does not differ from the male in plumage. Total length 8'5 inches, culmen 0:9, 
wing 4:7, tail 3:35, tarsus 1-7. 
Nestlings. Much browner than the adults and having the upper surface streaked with shaft-lines 
of orange-buff, the wing-coverts being tipped with spots of the same colour. The underparts are 
paler than in the adults, the throat being white with only a few dusky spots, and the rest of the 
under surface pale orange with blackish bars to the feathers of the breast and flanks. 
The specimens described are in the British Museum, and the one figured by Mr. Seebohm is a 
male from Durban in the Shelley Collection. ІК. B. 8.) 
