THE GROUND-THRUSHES. 
245 
ft ground-bird, searching for its food in humid situations, 
among the dead leaves under the trees and shrubs. Its 
golden-spangled plumage serves to conceal it, and it seems to 
frequent in England, when it occurs, similar situations to those 
it affects in its native home. Its food consists, as with most 
other Thrushes, of worms and grubs, spiders and snails, and as 
it is not a noisy species, it may easily be overlooked. In autumn 
it feeds also on berries. Whether it has a song has never been 
yet recorded, but such is doubtless the case. 
Nest.— The only authentic nest of White’s Thrush yet recorded 
was obtained near Ningpo, in China, by the late Consul Swinhoe, 
and is now in Mr. Seebohm’s collection. He describes it as 
follows : “ It was built on a fork of a horizontal pine-branch, 
and is about 2 l /i inches deep inside, and about 4 inches deep 
outside, 7 inches in outer and 4 inches in inner diameter. 
The outside is composed of withered rushes, line and coarse 
grass and moss, with an occasional twig and withered leaf, and 
plastered most copiously with mud. Here and there are a letv 
pieces of some green wood, apparently conveyed in the mud 
from the swamps. The inside is lined with a thick coating ol 
mud like the nests of our own Ring-Ouzel or Blackbird ; and 
is then finally lined with fibrous rootlets, quite as coarse as 
those which the Magpie uses, and one or two pieces of sedgy 
grass. In general appearance the nest resembles most closely 
that of a Common Magpie without the sticks — just the mere 
cup, and is far more coarsely made than the nests of the true 
Thrushes.” 
Eggs.— These, according to Mr. Seebohm, are greenish-white, 
with minute reddish spots. 1 hey most resemble those of the 
Mistle Thrush, but the ground-colour is slightly paler, and 
the spots much finer, more numerous, and more evenly dis- 
tributed. They measure 12 inch in length and 0-9 inch in 
breadth. 
THE GROUND THRUSHES. GENUS GEOCICIILA. 
Geocichla, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1837, p. 174. 
Type, G. rubecula (Gould). 
The members of this genus are birds of somewhat varie* 
