Vol. xxxi.] 



80 



of rich olive-brown with a strong rufescent tinge; under- 

 pays also without any of the bright rufous tint, which is 

 always present to a greater or less extent in O. mollissima^ 

 though there is a very slight tinge of ochre on the breast of 

 one of the adult birds ; the whole crown of the head is 

 strongly marked with pale shaft-stripes, a character never 

 present in the adult of O. mollissima. Bill from gape 

 28*4 mm., from feathers of forehead 21*6; wing 142*5-150; 

 tail 95-4-98 ; tarsus 30 4. 



Younger examples shew the same comparative differences 

 to the young of 0. mollissima as are shewn in the adults : 

 that is to say, they are much less rufous both above and 

 below ; they are also much more strongly striated and have 

 the dark margins of the feathers of the upperparts more 

 conspicuous. 



Obs. I have named this bird in honour of Capt. C. H. T. 

 Whitehead, who discovered it in the Khagan Valley, in the 

 Afridi Country, North-West Frontier Province of India. 



Capt. Whitehead has furnished me with the following 

 interesting notes : — 



'''This Thrush differs entirely in its habits from 0. mol- 

 lissima, which latter bird is an inhabitant of dense forests 

 growing at a much lower elevation. This bird, on the 

 contrary, frequents bare precipitous slopes above the limits 

 of tree-growth at an elevation of 12,500-14,500 feet, where 

 it nests in clefts in the rocks on cliffs. The notes I heard 

 it utter were similar to the rattling alarm-notes (like a 

 policeman's rattle) made by Merula maxima, which occurs 

 on the same ground ; also the single call-note, but I was 

 too late in the season to hear its song. It was quite 

 common in this one Valley (Khagan), but very wild and 

 difficult to approach once the young ones could shift for 

 themselves. As far as I could judge by observing (through 

 glasses) pairs feeding their young, the male and female 

 differed in no way from one another. In life the white bar 

 bordered with black under the wing seemed to me very 

 conspicuous.^ 



