Kg JLGEOCICHLA BRYTHR0NOTA.
2. ' PERONII.
S e e b o h m T h r u s h e s . P l . X V ,
GrEOCICHLA PERONII (Fieill.).
PERON’S GROUND-THRUSH.
Turdus peronii, Vieill, Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat. xx. p. 276 (1818).
Turdus novoe-koUandioe (nec Lath.), Less. Traité d Orn. p. 411 (1831).
Geocichla rubiginosa, S. Müll. Verh. nat. Gesch. Zool. p. 172 (1840).
Turdm rubiginosus, Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 220 (1847).
Geocichla peronii, Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. y . p. 169 (1881).
G. tectricibus alarum mediis et majoribus albo terminatis : supercilio pallido vix evidente: reetricibus lateralibus
albo terminatis : gulâ albâ. : pectore oastaneo, immaculato.
Beech’s Gboükd-Thktjsh was discoYered on the Island of Timor very early in the century by François
Péron, a French naturalist and traYeller. Péron was bom in 1775, sailed ftom Havre m the
‘Géographe’ under Captain Baudin in 1800, was in Timor in .1801, visited Australia m 180*,
revisited Timor in 1803, returned to France in 1804, and died in 1810. Péron’s Ground-Thrush made
its. first appearance in literature in 1818 under the name of “ Le Merle Péron,” Turdm peronii, in the
‘ N o u v e a u Dictionnaire d’Histoire Naturelle’ (xx. p. 276). In those days the importance of
geographical distribution was very little appreciated, the exact places where the specimens brought
home by the Baudin Expedition had been obtained were confused together, and Péron s Ground-
Thrush appeared in the Paris Museum with the erroneous locality of “ New Holland” attached to it.
About the year 1828 the species was rediscovered by Solomon Müller on the island of Timor,
and named by him Geocichla rubiginosa.
Nothing apparently has been recorded of its habits, which are doubtless the same as those of its
allies.T
he adult male and female may be described as follows :—
General colour of the upper parts huffish chestnut, slightly darker on the crown ; lores white ;
eye-stripe obsolete; lesser wing-coverts dull huffish chestnut; median and greater wing-coverts
nearly black, with brown margins, and with large white terminal fan-shaped spots; primary-coverts
dark brown, with a white streak on the outer web ; tertials russet-brown, with pale tips ; secondaries
brown, margined with huffish brown towards the tips and with white at the base of the outer webs;
primaries, where not emarginated, edged with white; tail-feathers brown, suffused with chestnut
01i the outer webs, the outer pair with a deep terminal wedge of white, nearly an inch in extent, the
next pair more or less tipped with white ; ear-coverts white, crossed by two black bands ; underparts
orange-chestnut, except the chin, throat, centre of belly, thighs, and under tail-coverts, which are
white, and the cheeks, which are white mottled with black ; axillaries dark brown, with white bases ;
lower primary-coverts brown ; lower secondary-coverts white, with dark brown bases.
Geocichline markings on inner webs of quills, white.
Bill dark brown, paler at the base of the under mandible ; second primary intermediate between
the sixth and seventh; tarsi, feet, and claws pale; outer tail-feathers very slightly shorter than the
longest.