GEOCICHLA WARD I .
H a n h a r t imp
P IE D G R O U N D -T H R U SH .
Turdus wardii, Jerdon, J. A. S. Beng. xi. p. 882 (1842).,
Turdus picaoides, Hodgs. in Gray’s Zool. Misc. p'. 83 (1844).
Oreocincla micropus, Hodgs. in Gray’s Zool. Misc. p. 83 (1844).
Zoothera melanoleuca, Hartl. Syst. Verz. Samml. Mus. Bremen, p. 42 (1844).
Merula wardii, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng. xvi. p. 146 (1847).
Turdus micropus, Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 218 (1847).
Gichloselys wardi, Bp. C. R.. xxxviii. p. 5 (1854).
Turdulus wardii, Jerdon, Birds of India, i. p. 520 (1862).
Oreocincla pectoralis, Legge, Stray Feathers, iv. p. 244 (1876).
Geocichla wardi, Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 178 (1881).
G. tectricibus alarum, tectricibus supracaudalibiis, et rectricibus lateralibus albo vel ochraceo terminatis.
T he P ied Ground-Thrush breeds in the Himalayas up to 6000 or 7000 feet and is found from the
Sutlej Valley to Sikhim and Bhutan. Its winter home is in the hills of Southern India and Ceylon
(Oates, Faun. Brit. Ind., Birds, ii.- p. 137). Stoliczka obtained a specimen at Sashan (Pelzeln,
Ibis, 1865, p. 313), and, according to Beavan, it is very abundant near Simla (Ibis, 1870, p. 324).
Specimens obtained by him in July are in the Tweeddale Collection in the British Museum, and the
Hume Collection also contains examples from Simla, procured on the 28th of September. Specimens
were shot by Capt. Hutton at Masuri (Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. As. Soc. p. 163), and it is said by Brooks
to be not uncommon there (Str. F. iii. p. 162, 1875). Specimens in the Hume Collection from Masuri
bear the dates of July and October. In the same collection are examples from Naini Tal procured
at an elevation of 5000 feet in May and October, and also some from Khati in Northern Kumaon in
May. Hodgson found it breeding in Nepal, Mandelli’s collectors obtained it in Native Sikhim in
April, and Major Bulger states that it is not uncommon near Darjiling (Ibis, 1869, p. 162). A
female from the lower hills in the Bhutan Dooars, obtained by Mandelli’s hunters in April 1873, is
in the Hume Collection. In North Cachar Mr. Stuart Baker regards the species as rather rare, and
has only found it nesting on one occasion (Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. ix. p. 138).
In Southern India the Pied Ground-Thrush is only known as a winter visitant. Jerdon records
it from Nellore in the Carnatic, and Major Lloyd has recorded it from the Konkan. The type
specimen was procured by Dr. S. N. Ward on the tableland of Mysore, immediately below the Segore
Pass (Jerdon, I. <?.). Davison records it as a winter visitor to the Nilgiris (Str. F. x. p. 374, 1887),
and examples procured by him in March and April are in the Hume Collection.
In Ceylon, according to Colonel Vincent Legge, “ it is a cool-weather migrant to the hills,
arriving late, during the month of November, and leaving again at the latter end of March or
early part of April. It does not appear to locate itself in the same localities every year, or else its
numbers vary considerably, for in some seasons it is almost wanting in districts in which it has
commonly been observed. It is found in most of the upper regions of the Kandyan Province, from
the altitude of Nuwara Elliva down to about 2800 fe e t; but it is most common between 3000 and