MER U LA R 0 R A IM2E (Salvin if Godman).
EORAIMA OUZEL.
Turdus roraimoe, Salvin & Godman, Ibis, 1884, p. 443.
M. gastneo cinnamomeo-fulvo : pileo nigro : gutture fuscescente, nigro late striato : rostro et pedibus flans.
T h is species is somewhat allied to M. olimttra of Venezuela, but is nevertheless^ very distinct
from that species. I t is a much darker bird and shows a decided difference in the colour
of the underparts, as may be seen by the figures and descriptions of the two species. In
M. roraimoe the breast is much darker and of a more cinnamon-buff colour, lightening on the
abdomen; the throat is not black and well-defined as in M. olivatra, but is dusky brown, and this
colour gradually shades off on the fore-neck into the cinnamon-buff colour of the rest of the under
surface of the body.
The Eoraima Ouzel is one of the many new species discovered by that excellent naturalist,
the late.Henry Whitely, in British Guiana, and the British Museum possesses a large series of
specimens obtained by him in that country, in August and September 1883, when he met with
the species on Mt. Eoraima at an elevation of 5000-6000 feet. Dr. J. J. Quelch and Mr. F. V.
McConnell also obtained it on Eoraima, and a specimen procured by Whitely on the Eiver
Carimang, in December 1885, is in the Salvin-Godman Collection. I t is probable, therefore, that
the species nests in the higher parts of Eoraima and descends to the lower elevations after the
breeding-season.
Adult male. General colour above dark olive-brown, a little more dingy on the mantle
and back; wing-coverts like the back ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills blackish, externally
edged with darker olive, the inner secondaries entirely dark olive, like the back; tail blackish;
crown of head and nape and sides of face black; entire throat and fore-neck dusky brown, shading
off into dull cinnamon-buff on the breast, becoming a little lighter on the abdomen and v e n t;
the throat obscured by large longitudinal spots of black; sides of body and thighs darker and more
dusky olive; under tail-coverts dusky olive-brown, with pale cinnamon edges; under wing-coverts
dusky olive-brown, with pale rufescent edges; quills below dusky, more ashy along the inner
webs: bill yellow; feet yellow or yellowish-brown. Total length 9’5 inches, culmen T05, wing 4'9,
tail 3‘6, *tarsus 1'3.
Adult female. Lighter olive-brown than the male, the head dusky blackish, only a little darker
than the back; throat and fore-neck dusky olive-btown, the upper throat obscured by blackish
streaks; centre of breast and abdomen ochraceous-buff, becoming paler towards the ven t; sides of
body dark ochraceous-brown; under wing-coverts dusky, edged with ochraceous-buff: bill dark
brown, homy yellowish towards the tip. Total length 9 inches, culmen 1-0, wing 4-75, tail 3-5,
tarsus 1*25.
Young. Dark olive-brown, with the head blackish ;■ the feathers of the upper surface
mesially streaked with shaft-lines of buff, and the wing-coverts with triangular rufous spots
at the ends of the feathers; under surface of body ochraceous-rufous, mottled with black