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lives a great deal on the ground, for the most part among the bushes and climbing plants. Its 
call-note is almost identical with that of our Blackbird, and the song and alarm-note are almost 
exactly the same as those of the last-named species. He found the nest in May in Begemeder, on a 
little sunny hill overgrown with bushes and high trees. Тһе nest was placed on a broken acacia- 
stump, and was not built up with clay; otherwise it resembled the nest of Merula merula, as did also 
the eggs, which were hardly to be distinguished from those of our Common Blackbird. 
Adult male. General colour above dark olive-brown, slightly tinged with ashy, especially on the 
lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts; head a trifle darker than the back; wing-coverts like 
the back; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills sepia-brown, externally like the back; tail. 
feathers blackish-brown, slightly washed with grey on the outer webs; lores blackish; ear-coverts 
and sides of face dark brown; cheeks, throat, and entire breast dull ashy-brown, slightly paler 
towards the chin, which, with the throat, shows a few rows of triangular black spots; lower breast 
and abdomen clear orange-rufous, the lower abdomen whitish ; thighs orange-rufous; lower flanks 
slightly washed with ashy-brown ; under tail-coverts dusky brown, with a long wedge-shaped mark 
of white towards the ends; under wing-coverts and axillaries bright orange-rufous; quills dusky 
brown below, with a slight shade of orange along the inner web: “ bill bright fiery-red ; feet orange ; 
iris brown; eyelids fiery-red” (Von Heuglin). ‘Total length 8:5 inches, culmen 0:9, wing 4:2, 
tail 3:4, tarsus 1:2, 
Adult female. Not different from the male. "Total length 8:5 inches, culmen 0:85, wing 4:75, 
tail 3:7, tarsus 1:25. | 
Young. Darker than Ше adults, but with orange-buff shaft-streaks ; under surface buffy-white 
on the throat and orange on the breast and abdomen, smudged with blackish-brown spots and 
bars on the ends of the feathers. 
Antinori gives the soft parts of an adult female killed in December as follows :—* Bill orange- 
red; feet orange-yellow ; iris smoky-brown." Males obtained in January and February had the 
bill red, the feet orange, the iris dull hazel; while a female killed in June had the bill black and 
yellow, and the feet yellow. 
Dr. Ragazzi gives the colour of the bill as red in a specimen obtained in December, the feet 
being yellowish-red, the claws slightly paler, and the iris chestnut. Another male procured in 
the same month had the bill orange-red, the feet also orange-red but paler, and the iris reddish- 
brown. 
The specimens described are in the British Museum from Shoa, and the bird figured is from 
* Lake Tsanné ” in the Seebohm Collection. ГЕ. В. S.) 
