GEOCICHLA K q r s f t e l d i .
G E O C I C H L A H O R S F I E L D I ( B p . ) .
HORSPIELD’S GROTJND-THRTJSH,
Turdus varius (nec Pall.), Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 149 (1821).
Turdus lunulatus (nec .Lath.), Sundev. K. Vet.-Akad. Handl. Stockh. 1840, p. 37,
Oreocincla horsjieldi, Bp. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1857, p. 205.
Oreocincla molayana, Sundev. J. f. 0 . 1857, p. 161.
Turdus malayanus, Gray, Hand-1. Birds, i. p. 254, no. 3688 (1871).
Geocichla horsjieldi, Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 153, pi. x. (1881).
G. suprà rufescenti-brunnea, nigro lunulata: rectricibus 1 4 : pileo ochraceo variegato: remige secundá qumtam
haud «equante.
The present species is confined to the Island of Java, where it was discovered by Dr. Horsfield
early in the present century. In his paper on the “ Systematic Arrangement and Description of Birds
from the Island of Java,” read before the Linnean Society on the 18th of April, 1820, he named this
Thrush Turdus varius ; but whether he-gave, this name independently, or whether he was aware of
Pallas’s description of a Turdus varius, and identified the Javan with the Siberian bfrd, is not known.
Sundevall subsequently identified the species as Turdus lunulatus of Australia, but m his monograph
of the genus Oreocincla, published in 1869, he recognized the species as distinct and called it;
0. malayana. In the same year Bonaparte also described it as 0. horsjieldi, and this name has been
generally recognized as having priority.
Since Horsfield’s time no notes on the habits of the bird have, been published, and the species
dpgk not occur in Dr. Vordeman’s excellent account of the birds of Batavia. Horsfield met with
it only in''one part of Java, in the thick forests which cover Mount Prahu, a volcanic peak, almost
in the centre of the island, which rises .8500 feet above the level of the sea. High up on this
mountain (between six and seven thousand feet) it was very abundant and easily caught by the
natives, so that in the course of a few days he obtained a great number of specimens ; it was feeding;
on insects and worms. It has been recently obtained by Mr. Doherty in the hills of Lombok,
between 3000 and 6000 feet (Hartert, Nov. Zool. iii. p. 555). Mr. A. H. Everett also met with it
at Son Karean, in the same island, at 5000 feet (Hartert, t. c. p. 593).
Geocichla horsjieldi is a very distinct species, resembling G. varia in having fourteen tail-
feathers, hut differing from its Paige arctic ally in many important points.
It may always be distinguished from G. varia by its smaller size. Wing 5'5 to 5'25 inches,
tail 4-0 to 3-4 inches, culmen 1-22 to 1-12 inch, tarsus 1'35 inch. Outer tail-feather narrowly tipped
with white, and half an inch shorter than the longest.
It may also be distinguished from G. varia by its more rounded wing. The second primary
is about equal to the sixth, sometimes a trifle shorter, sometimes a trifle longer. In G. varia
the second primary is almost an inch longer than the sixth, and considerably longer than the
fifth.
In colour it is also quite different, being at all times much more of a russet-brown, not so olive-
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