MERULA L U DO V IC IÆ, Lort Phillips
SOMALI OUZEL.
Merula lmdomdce, Lort Phillips, Bulli Brit. Orn. Club, iv. p. xxxvi (1:895); id. Ibis, 1896,
p. 78, pi. i i . ; id. Ibis, 1898, p. 410.
M. schistacea, pileo dorso concolore : subtiis schistacea, gutture nigro : rostro et pedibus flavis.
T h is interesting species was discovered by Mr. Lort Phillips on his second expedition to Somaliland,
and has been named by him after his wife, who accompanied him on his travels in the Goolis
Mountains.- He writes:—“ I was delightfully reminded of our English Blackbird when I first saw
an example of this new species. I t was early morning, the bushes and grass were glistening with
dew, and under a gigantic cedar I caught sight of a dark grey bird with yellow bill and feet, hunting
for worms in the truly orthodox manner, whilst on the topmost bough another was pouring forth
his morning song. I watched them for some time and then continued my way, as I only had my
rifle with me. I t was, however, some days before I was able to obtain a specimen, and then I was
lucky enough to find a nest containing two eggs in a thick bush, much resembling a box-tree.
I also shot both the male and female.
“ The nest is a coarsely made structure of small twigs and bark, peeled off in strips and
intertwined with the sticks and a few straws. The lining is of dried grass with a few leaves, and
there is a little moss on the outside of the nest. The eggs were two in number, of a very delicate
type for a Blackbird. The ground-colour is a very pale greenish blue, plentifully sprinkled with
tiny spots of rufous, clouding together at the larger end; the underlying markings and spots are
faint purplish grey. Axis IT inch, diam. 0’75.” (Ibis, 1896, p. 78.); ,
On his third expedition to Somaliland he obtained some more specimens, and in the * Ibis for
1898 (p. 410) he makes the following remarks:—“ This Blackbird is confined to the localities
where the Giant Cypress (Juniperus procera) grows, the berries of which provide its chief food. On
the north face of Wagga Mountain, which is covered with a forest of these grand trees, the
song of M. ludovicice may be heard in all directions in the early morning. To the westward,
at Darra Ass, some 40 miles distant, is another such forest, where I obtained the first recorded
specimens.”
Adult male (type of species). General colour above dark slaty-grey with a slight olivaceous
tint, the margins to the feathers being of a dull olive-grey; crown of head a little darker than the
back; wing-coverts like the back, the median and greater series externally slaty-grey; bastard-wing,
primary-coverts, and quills black, edged with slaty-grey, a. little more hoary on the primaries; tail-
feathers black, the outermost narrowly fringed with white at the tip; sides of face, ear-coverts, and
entire throat black; sides of neck and under surface of body light slaty-grey, with narow white
shaft-lines on the under tail-coverts; axillaries and under wing-coverts dusky slate-cplour, washed
with rufous-brown; quills blackish below, ashy on the inner webs: “ bill and feet yellow; iris
dark brown” (JE. Lort Phillips). Total length 8*5 inches, culmen 0-8, wing 4-65, tail 8-9,
tarsus 1*15.
YOL. II. M