C0PSYCH1XS MINBANEWSIS.
COPSYCHUS MINDANENSIS.
Malacca Dial Bird.
Merle de Mindanao, Buff. Hist. Nat. des Ois., tom. iii. p. 387.—Id. PI. E n l, p. 627, fig. 1.
Turdus mindanmsis, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 823.—Lath. Ind. Qrn., vol. i. p. 353.
Copsychtis mindanensis, Blyth, Joura. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xvi. p. 139.— Id. Cat. o f Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc.
Calcutta, p. 166.—Id. Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. xx. p. 317.—Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., tom. i.
p. 267.—Horsf. and Moore, Cat. o f Birds in Mus. East Ind. Comp., vol. i. p. 278.—Moore in Proc.
Zool. Soc., part xxii. p. 282.—Sclat. in Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 186.
Lanius musicus, Raffl. Trans..Linn. Soc., vol. xiii. p. 307.
Gryllivora magnirostra, Swains, in Lard. Cab. Cyc. Anim. in Menag.,- p. 291 ?
------------- intermedia, Id. ib., p. 291?
------------- rosea, Id. ib., p. 342?
------------- brevirostra, Id. ib., p. 292 ?
Mindanao Thrush, Latb. Gen. Syn., vol. iii. p. 69.—Sbaw, Gen. Zool., vol. x. p. 250.—Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. v. p. 77.
Choche, Malay, Blyth.
Moorai or Moorai Kichou, Sumatra, Raffles.
T h is species, to which I have given the trivial name of the Malaccca Dial Bird, is the representative in the
Malaccan Peninsula of the Dayal o f In d ia ; and if the above list of synonyms be correct, it will be seen that,
like that bird, it has attracted the notice of numerous ornithologists. Besides being a native of Malacca,
where it is common in the neighbourhood of Penang, it was also observed in Sumatra by the late Sir Thomas
S. Raffles, who gave it the specific appellation o f musicus, a term which indicates that, like its near ally
(C. saularis'), it is a beautiful songster. I have never yet seen examples of this bird from Mindanao or any
other of the Philippine Islands, nor do I believe that it is ever found th e re ; Gmelin’s specific name of
mindanensis, therefore, is by no means an appropriate one.
As might be expected, the sexes exhibit the same difference in their colouring which occurs in the
C. saularis, the female having the upper surface of a lighter hue, and the throat and breast grey instead of
black.
The male has the head, all the upper surface, throat, chest, and upper half o f the abdomen steely black;
wings dull black, with the exception of the upper rows of coverts and the edges of the seventh and eighth
secondaries, which are pure white, forming a conspicuous stripe along the wing; three outer tail-feathers
white, with an oblique mark of black on the base of the interior web, small on the first, larger and occupying
a part of the base of the outer web of the second, and greatly increased on both webs o f the th ird ; the
fourth feather black, with a white tip and a wedge-shaped mark of the same hue pointing backwards from
the white tip towards the base of the feather on the outer web; the remaining tail-feathers wholly black;
lower part of the abdomen and under tail-coverts white; irides brown ; bill and legs black.
The female differs in the upper surface being less intense in colour, and in the throat and chest being grey
instead of black.
The Plate represents both sexes, of the size of life, on the Gordonia Jamnica.