More recently Colonel Rippon has obtained a female and a nearly fall-grown young bird
of this Ouzel in 'tle Kalaw'district u f the Sp'uthern, Sljan States .(Ibis, 1,897» p.. .104). He found
the species fairly common between 4000 and 6000 feet. Colonel Bingham has also shown me a
young bird from the Mekong River, obtained by Mr. W. Craddock in February 1901.
Adult male. General colour above dark siaty-grey, including the wing-coverts; baptard-wing,
primary-coverts, quills, and tail-feathers dark sepia-brown, externally slaty-grey; crown of bead
and neck black, extending over the hind-neck to the mantle, but not overspreading the latter;
sides of face, cheeks, throat, and fore-neck black; remainder of under surface of body from
the fore-neck downwards rich orange-rufous, the lower flanks washed with slaty-grey like the
back; . centre o f abdomen and under tail-coverts white, the latter externally edged with .dusky grey;
thighs orange; under wing-coverts and axillaries rich orange-rufous like the breast; quills dusky
brown bhlow, ashy along .the inner web: “ bill, feet',.and claws wax-yellow, more or less oiange,
iris brown; eyelids yellow ”. (A. O. Hume). Total, length 8-5 inches, culmen 0-9, wing .4:8, tail 3-0,
tarsus 12.
Adult female. Differs from the male in being dark olive-brown above; wings and tail also
dark olive-brown, with obsolete orange-rufous margins to the,, wing-coverts; cheeks, throat; and
fore-neck dingy fulvous-brown, plentifully spotted with, black;- breast and sides of body, under
wing-coverts, and axillaries deep orauge,rufousr soft parts as in the male. Total length 7'5 inches,
culmen 0’85, wing 4'6, tail 2-65, tarsus 1-2. . ;
The female is similar to that of M. hortulorum, hut is a much darker bird, especially on
the throat, which is brown and not white. The orange colour of the under surface Is alsn.
much, deeper an^ richer in tint, and occupies, the whole of: the upper breast, whereas in
M. hortulorum the.white continues up to the fore-neck.
Young. Dusky olive-brown, streaked with orange-rufous shafts to the feathers, the wing-co.verts
tipped with triangular spots of orange-rufous; throat, centre of breast, and abdomen white as in the.
adults, but obscured by black edgings to the feathers, as are also the orange-rufous sides o f the body:
“ bill wax-yellow, the upper mandible shaded with brown; feet brownish-yellow - (A. 0. Hume).
I t would seem that the male -is some time before assuming the black head and neck, for
Mr. Hume obtained a specimen in Manipur in April which bears only, a few traces of obsolete
buff spots on the wing-coverts; and even if it be a bird of the previous year, it must have
gone through its autumn moult, and yet it can hardly be distinguished from an adult female,,
excepting, perhaps, that the orange of the sides of the body is slightly brighter than in the
hen birds. “ Bill, legs and feet, and eyelid wax-yellow, paler on the eyelids;. ends of the
claw-s brownish ” (A. O. Hume).-, . . . . . . . -
The; adult male described and.figured was obtained near Dibrugarh in Assam in February
Jay the. late . Dr. Francis Day, and is in. the Seebohm Collection. The adult female was obtained
at Dibrugarh by Mr. j . R. Cripps in February, and is in the Hume Collection. The young bird
described was presented to the British Museum by Colonel G. Rippon, who procured it at' Kalaw,
in the Southern Shan. States, in May 1896. . . . . ,[R. B. S.]