M E R U L A C E L E B E N S I S , Buttik.
CELEBEAN CHESTNUT-BREASTED OUZEL.
Merula celebensis, Buttik. Notes Leyden Mus. xv. p. 109 (1892); Seebohm, Ibis, 1898, p. 222;
Hartert, Nov. Zool. iii. p. 150 (1896), iv. p. 155 (1897); Meyer & Wiglesw. B. Celebes, ii.
p. 510 (1898).
M. rostro flavo : pedibus flavis: similis M. fumida, sed suprk paullulum olivaceo tincta, pileo quoque saturatiore
brunneo: pectore pallidiore et potius aurantiaco-castaneo: subcaudalibus medialiter albo lineatis.
T h e typical specimen of M. celebensis is in the Leyden Museum, and was described by Dr. Biittikofer
in 1892. The example in question was forwarded to that Institution by Mr. Teysmann from
Makassar in 1877, but, as Dr. Meyer and Mr. Wiglesworth have pointed out in their • Birds of
Celebes,’ it is unlikely that the specimen came from the immediate vicinity of Makassar, but that
it was found on the high mountains in the interior of the Southern Peninsula, thirty miles away.
Drs. P. and F. Sarasin met with it on Lompo Batang Mountain, which attains to an elevation of
10,000 feet. These travellers procured specimens at a height of 6000 feet.
On Bonthain Peak Mr. Doherty obtained examples of this Ouzel between 6000 and 7000 feet,
whence it ranges to still higher elevations, and on the same mountain it was likewise found by the
late Mr. Everett’s native collectors.
■ Adu lt female. Very similar to M. fumida, and only to be distinguished by being more olive-
brown above, not so slaty-grey in tint, in having the head almost precisely of the same colour as the
back, and in having the dark ashy-brown colour of the throat arrested at the fore-neck and not
extending over the chest and upper breast; the centre of the abdomen also showing a slight
admixture of white. Total length 8*7 inches, culmen 0-95, wing 4*75, tail 8‘25, tarsus 1*4.
An adult male from Bonthain Peak is fully described by Mr. Hartert (I. c.), and the soft parts
are given by Mr. Doherty as follows:—“ Iris dark brown; feet ochreous-brown; bill orange-ochreous,
duller above.” Mr. Hartert says that the female differs in being somewhat browner on the breast.
The young bird is described by Dr. Meyer and Mr. Wiglesworth as follows (I. c.):
“ Young male. Above warmer brown (bistre) than the adult, darkest on the head, palest on the
rump; tail blackish; on the mantle and scapulars some fulvous shaft-streaks; the wing-coverts with
rufous tip s; underparts rufous, less clear than in the adult, spotted with dusky, most thickly on the
breast; crissum whitish ; thighs grey-brown and cinnamon ; superciliary stripe, eyelid, and submalar
stripe fulvous-rufous, below the last a dark stripe on either side of the throat,”
The description and figure are taken from Mr. Everett’s specimen from Bonthain Peak in the
British Museum* [®*