MONTICOLA CYANA. 
461 
An immature male in my collection, shot in March in Ceylon, appears to be in the next stage to the adult dress. The 
blue pluma^^e of the upper surface is intermingled with brown pale-tipped feathers, principally on the head and 
hind neck;” the wing-coverts, shorter tertials, and upper tail-coverts are tipped with white ; the primaries and 
secondaries are tipped pale ; under surface pale blue, lightest on throat ; the chest-feathers are brown terininally, 
their extreme tips being fulvous ; the feathers of the breast and lower parts aaetippe w i isi. 
After the next moult the white edgings in this bird would disappear, and it would be in the dull blue brown-edged 
plumage of the adult winter dress. 
Ohs. The first writer on Indian ornithology who drew attention to the Blue Eock-Thrushes of ^ 
Col. Sykes, who described the species found in it as distinct, under the title of P. pan oo, a eging ^ a i u 
from the European bird in its smaller size, slighter form, brighter csenilean tint, want o orange eye ic ^ 
tips to the feathers. As can be seen at a glance, however, these were individual peculiarities, am on 
acquaintance with the species in India, Sykes’s name relapsed into a synonym for the European ir , as 
some years later, the P. longirostru of Blyth, founded on a Cashmere specimen. fV, 
It will not be necessary, in a local work such as this, to investigate the vexed question of the validity or o ® 
of the eastern species, M. solitaria, a partly rufous form of the present. The subject has been to 
Messrs. Hharpe and Dresser in the ‘ Birds of Europe,’ and by Mr. Hume in ‘ btray leathers. It wi su ice 
state the case, and refer my readers to the exhaustive researches of these authors, should they wish to juCo® ' 
themselves in the matter. From Eastern Bengal, through Burmah and Tenasserim, to the easternmost par s o 
China it is found that the males of the Blue Eock-Thrushes inhabiting that quarter of Asia assume a p uinage 
w'hich, in its perfect state, consists of a deep chestnut-colour from the breast to the under tail-coverts , tiey pass 
into tliis dress from the immature stage of the spring following their first moult, in which the blue feathers ° ® 
upper surface are pale-edged, and those of the throat dark-tipped ; during the time this plumage is being acquiree 
immature specimens are met with in every degree of advancement to the rufous coloration, while also mature 
examples, with a uniform blue upper plumage, are to be seen in every degree of diminution from the rufous dress 
some having, for instance, only a small portion of the breast or abdomen thus coloured, w'hile others may have no 
sign of it, except on the under tail-coverts, proving that the bird passes into the rufous stage, and then out o it 
as it gets fully adult. This character is not found in the females, for Mr. Hume can find no trace of it in a arge 
series collected from Spain to Amoy. ^ 
It seems reasonable, I think, to assign the eastern form to the rank of a local race or subspecies, as in it alone, an no 
ill the western, is found this peculiarity of coloration in the male bird. 
Distribution. — The Blue Eock-Thrush is a migratory straggler to the hills of Ceylon, probably coming 
thus far south only during those years which witness an unusual stream to the Nilghiri hills and ot er 
elevated portions of Southern India. I have but to record two examples^ both shot by a gentleman of t e 
planting community who interests himself much in the birds of the island — Mr. Thos. Farr, of Maske lya. 
The first wms obtained in the vicinity of Kaduganuawa during November I87'2, and the second (one of a pa,ir) 
on the Galloway-Knowe Estate, Nilambe, in March 1875; both were shot frequenting boulders beneath hig i 
precipices. This part of the Central Province, lying as it does to the westward of Kandy, is a district where 
an occasional migrant from India to our hills would naturally first lodge ; but there are still more li e v 
localities in the Kurunegala and Matale hills, where future research may prove that it locates Eself during its 
short stay. That it does not wander far from those spots which are suited to its habits, and m which it rs^ 
arrives, is evident on the testimony of one or two gentlemen who have described to me a bird, w hich ® ^ 
other than this species, frequenting the rocks in the same estate for a whole season. One of these ins anc 
occurred in the Knuckles, and another v^ery close to wdiere the first example above recorded was s lot. 
This Thrush is found throughout the whole of India in winter, arriving, according to er on, a ou 
October, and retiring again in April. Regarding its distribution in the south, he vvrites that it is cimraon in 
the Nilghiris in open and rocky ground, more rare in the Carnatic, very common in the Deccan an en ra 
India, and abundant along the northern portion of the west coast, being likewise foun m . . 
Cashmere, and the N.W. Himalayas. Additional evidence as to its localization in In la is a or e y le 
writings of naturalists in ' Stray Feathers Mr. Bourdillon says it visits the Travancore hil s m sma ®rs , 
Mr. Fairbank remarks that it leaves the Deccan in March, and Khandala at the end of April. Mr. Ball writes 
that it is found near most of the large rivers in Chota Nagpur, and that he procured it in Singh bhum, Sirguja, 
and Hazaribagh. It is found throughout the Mt.-Aboo and Giizerat districts ; and in Sindh, Mr. Hume writes, 
