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Belgium and in Heligoland. A few breed every year 011 the
Hartz Mountains, and it may be traced thence in an eastward
direction across the Russian Empire, being common, in certain
elevated and rocky localities, to China, where, Père David
says, it summers on the Pekin Mountains. Mr. Blanford
obtained it near Ava in Burma, and, though not yet recorded
from the plains of India, it is said to have been procured in
Western Thibet, as well as in the upper portion of the Sutlej
valley, Cashmere, Yarkand and Turkestan. It has been
met with on the Persian coast of the Caspian Sea, and is a
summer-visitor to Palestine, arriving from its winter quarters
in Arabia or Africa, for many observers have noted it as a
bird of double passage in Egypt, and it has been obtained as
far south as Abyssinia. The late Mr. Chambers-Hodgetts
saw it in Tripoli, and it is stated by Loclie to be resident in
Algeria, occupying the highest parts of the Atlas. On the
west coast of Africa it has been found, according to Messrs.
Sharpe and Dresser, at Casamane and Bissao. Inmost of the
islands of the Mediterranean as well as in the lower parts of
the countries bordering its northern shores, the Rock-Thrush
is a common bird of double passage, but it also breeds more
or less abundantly in the mountainous districts of their
interior, and there are few, if any, of the higher ranges of
Central Europe which do not afford it a summer home and
consequently a nursery.
The male is an excellent songster, and is a common cage-
bird in some countries. Naturally it is very shy and difficult
of approach, settling 011 prominent places, whence it is able
to command a view all around. I t feeds on various berries,
insects and earth-worms. Among fragments of rock, or loose
stones, the pair make their nest, which is constructed of moss,
lined with fine roots or hair ; the eggs, five or six in number,
and measuring from 1 -12 to ‘97 by from -77 to- 55 in., are
a light greenish-blue, not shining as those of the Song-
Thrush, and generally without markings, but occasionally
slightly speckled and streaked with reddish-brown.
The male bird has the bill black, the irides hazel : the
whole of the head, neck and upper part of the back bluishgrey,
passing into brownish-black on the scapulars; the lower
part of the back white, varied with a few bluish-grey feathers;
tail chestnut-brown, the two middle feathers rather darker
than the others; wings and wing-coverts dark brown, almost
blackish-brown; the greater wing-coverts and secondaries
tipped with buffy-wlrite; the body beneath, and lower tail-
coverts, light chestnut-brown or b a y : legs and toes dark
reddish-brown.
The whole length seven inches and a h a lf; the wing from
the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill four inches and
three-quarters.
The female has the body above of a dull brown ; 011 the
back are some large white spots edged with brown; throat
and sides of the neck pure'white, some of the feathers occasionally
varied with ash-brown; ajl the other lower parts
reddisli-wliite, with fine transverse lines at the end of each
feather; tail light bay, the two middle feathers ash-brown.
A young bird of the year, killed near Geneva in July, 1850,
and kindly lent to me by Captain G. J . Johnson, formerly of
the Coldstream Guards, has all the upper parts light ash-
brown, each feather terminated with a spot of greyisli-
wliite. Wing-quills tipped with buffy-white : wing-coverts
edged with grey and tipped with buffy-white; tail red ; the
two middle feathers greyish-black ; the body beneath something
like that of the adult female, but more varied with
white, which is again intersected with brown lines.
Mr. Blake-Knox has recorded (Zool. s.s. p. 2019) the occurrence
in Westmeath, 011 the 17tli of November, 1866, of an
example of the Blue Thrush (Montícola cyanus), which is
now in the Museum of the Royal Dublin Society. The
southern range of this species, even though it has occurred
as a straggler in Heligoland, seems to render its enrolment
as a “ British” bird inexpedient.