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GEOCIOHLA GURNEYI [HartL).
GURNET’S GROUND-THRUSH.
Turdus gurneyi, Hartlaub, Ibis, 1864, p. 350, pi. ix.
Geocichla gurneyi, Seebobm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 170 (1881).
G. tectricibus alarum mediis et majoribus albo terminatis: supereilio pallido vix evidente: fronte atque pileo
olivascenti-brunneisj dorso concoloribus: pectore castaneo, immaculato.
G urnet’s Ground-T hrush was first discovered by tbat veteran ornithologist, Thomas Ayres, who
procured a single male bird in a precipitous range of hills about six miles from Pietermaritzburg in
Natal.- The same collector obtained a second specimen in 1875, in the Macamac district of the
Eastern Transvaal. This was also a male bird, and is now in the British Museum.
These two examples were the only ones known till Mr. Alexander Whyte, who has done so
much to increase our knowledge of the avifauna of British Central Africa, under the auspices of
Sir Harry Johnston, rediscovered the species on Mount Zomba in Nyasaland, and the same
naturalist found it on the Milanji Highlands at 6000 feet (Shelley, Ibis, 1893, p. 13, 1894, p. 9).
A female bird was also obtained by Mr. Whyte at Fort Lister, a station at the extreme north-east
end of the Milanji range at an elevation of 3300 feet (Whyte, Ibis, 1894, pp. 463, 468).
From the above records, the range of the species, so far as is known at present, extends from
about 15° S. lat. to nearly 30° S. lat. The supposed occurrence of G. gurneyi in North-east Africa
(Heuglin, Om. N.O.-Afr. i. p. 384) doubtless refers to G. piaggics.
Nothing has as yet been recorded concerning the habits or nidification of this species.
Gurney’s Ground-Thrush is very easily diagnosed from the other Ground-Thrushes which, like
it, have white terminal spots to the median and greater wing-coverts. No other species of this little
group combines the character of the unspotted underparts with the crown, forehead, and ear-coverts
dark olive-brown.
The adult male and female may be described as follows :—
General colour of the upper parts olive-brown, slightly darker on the crown and shading into
russet-brown on the rump and upper tail-coverts; lores chestnut; eye-stripe obsolete; lesser wing-
coverts russet-brown; greater and median wing-coverts nearly black, with large white terminal fanshaped
spots; primary-coverts brown, with a pale olive-brown streak on the outer web; tertials
russet-brown; secondaries and primaries brown, margined with russet-brown on the outer webs; tail
feathers russet-brown, the outer pair obscurely tipped with white; ear-coverts dark olive-brown;
underparts orange-chestnut, shading rather suddenly into white on the belly, thighs, and under tail-
coverts, the longest of which are obscurely margined with brown; axillaries dark olive-brown, with
white bases ; lower primary-coverts brown; lower' secondary-coverts white, with dark brown
bases.G
eocichline markings on the inner webs of the quills white ; bill dark brown; second primary
intermediate in length between the eighth and ninth; legs, feet, and claws flesh-colour; outer tail-
feathers 0 2 5 inch shorter than the longest.