351. Petrocossyphus cyaneus, Lin.

Turdus apud Linnaeus - Blyth, Cat. 960 - P. pandoo, Sykes, Cat. 64 (the male) - P. maal, Sykes, Cat. 65 (the female) -  Jerdon, Cat. 81 -  Jeedon, 111. Ind. Orn., pi. 20 - P. longirostris, Blyth, J. A. S., XVII., 150 - P. affinis, Blyth, Cat. 961 -  Horsf., Cat. 254 - Shama, H., in the South of India, - Pandu, Mahr. - Poda kachi-pitta, Tel. - Ningri-pho, Lepch.

The Blue Rock-thrush.

Descr. - Male, throughout of a dull indigo or Antwerp blue, more or less marked with dusky, and the feathers of the abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts, pale tipped: in some specimens with a tinge of deep ferruginous on the feathers of these parts.

The female is dingy greyish-brown, with a faint blue or ashy tinge, greyer on the tail; some of the feathers edged with whitish, and the under-parts fulvescent-greyish, with dusky cross-bands ; some being rufescent on the lower parts, especially on the vent and under tail-coverts.

In some the tail is nearly even, in others the outer tail-feathers are half an inch shorter than the penultimate pair.

Bill and legs black ; irides deep brown. Length 8 1/2 to 9 inches; wing 4 1/2 to 5 ; extent 14 ; tail 3 1/4 to 4 ; bill at front 8/10 to 9/10 ; tarsus 1.

Colonel Sykes separated the Indian Rock-thrush from the European one, and in this is followed by Horsfield in his Catalogue. Blyth united them in his Catalogue, but subsequently described a P. longirostris from Cashmere, which he has since referred to the European race cyaneus; and on carefully examining specimens from Europe with Indian ones of pandoo, in company with Mr. Blyth, we agreed that these could not be separated. Indian specimens are apparently deeper blue, but this may depend on season, this bird being only a winter visitant in India; and though, in some specimens, the bill is shorter than in those from Europe, yet others with equally long beaks are met with.

Mr. Blyth has lately also joined both his affinis from Darjeeling and Burmah, and manillensis from China and the Philippines, to the European species, making the following varieties : - a. longirosiris, BL, from Cashmere and Afghanistan, precisely the same as the bird from Europe ; b. pandoo, Sykes, from Western and Southern India  ; c. affinis, Bl., from Sikhim, Lower Bengal, and Burmah; d. manillensis, Auct., from China and the Philippines.

In deference to Mr. Blyth's matured opinion, I have put affinis as a synonym of P. cyaneus; but I cannot do the same with manillensis, and I am in great doubts about the identity of affinis. It generally has the blue more vivid than in cyaneus ; the dusky markings being less developed ; there is generally more or less deep ferruginous here and there, sometimes on the rump, and occasionally in the lower plumage; and the outer tail-feathers are generally shorter than the penultimate pair. The female, too, is generally more tinged with blue above, and the ground-tint of the lower-parts are more rufescent than in the female of cyaneus. The young bird has the light markings of the nestling plumage much more white above, and more rufescent beneath. Mr. Blyth himself was first led to change his previous opinion of the diversity of these two races, by shooting two birds in Burmah, in succession, upon the same tree, on the following clays, close under a deep rock-cutting, one of which had the  outer tail-feathers shorter, the other not; and which he would have referred respectively to P. affinis and P. cyaneus, if he had received them from different localities.

It will be observed that, of these races or varieties, each race occupies a peculiar  range of longitude; cyaneus (with pandoo) on the west range, without any admixture of rufous; manillensis on the extreme east, with the whole abdomen chesnut; and affinis, between the two, sometimes with, sometimes without, any rufous. When specimens in summer plumage from various points along the North of Asia have been compared, perhaps a more correct judgment will be obtained of the distinctness or otherwise of these races. Is it possible that affinis can be a fertile hybrid between manillensis and cyaneus ?

The Blue Rock-thrush, as given in our synonyms, inhabits the whole of India. The variety without any admixture of rufous in the N. W. Himalayas, and throughout the West and the South of India; the variety, affinis, in the S. E. Himalayas, occasionally in Lower Bengal, and extending into Assam and Burmah.

The former variety is common on the Neilgherries, in open and rocky ground; more rare in the Carnatic, on stony hills; very common in the Deccan and Central India; and, according to Mr. Elliot, very abundant along the Northern portion of the West coast.

Hence it extends through N. W. India to Sindh, Cashmere, and the N. W. Himalayas. In the Deccan, and the west of India, it is quite a familiar bird, perching on a house-top, feeding about stables, and frequently even entering verandahs, and sheltering itself during the heat of the day on beams and the eaves of houses. It always feeds on the ground, chiefly on coleoptera, ants, &c, and is quite solitary in its habits. As previously noticed, it is only a winter visitor to India, coming in about October, and retiring to the North in April. It has a very sweet song, which it warbles forth, even in India, for some time before it quits the country, not whilst it is feeding, but during the heat of the day where it happens to have taken shelter. It is supposed to be the Sparrow' of our English version of the Scriptures, that sittcth alone on the house-top. It is found over most of Europe and Asia, and the North of Africa. It is called the Shama on the Bombay coast and the Deccan, where it is caught and prized as a songster; the real Shama being the Copsychus macrourus.

I observed the Eastern variety only at Darjeeling, in open forest and cleared land, and it appeared to me to be much more shy than the other, and shuns the haunts of man. Blyth tells me, however, that he was struck with the familiarity of this bird in Burmah ; and Tytler assured him that it visited the station of Barrack-pore, near Calcutta, every season, where Blyth also states that he has since observed it.

Lesson has a Petrocincla castaneocollis, from the Himalayas, which I cannot identify; so add a brief description taken from the Revue Zoologique, 1840.

Male, above undulated with brown, black and grey; the upper tail-coverts ferruginous ; cheeks black; fore-part of the neck, from the chin, maronne-red : lower neck and breast whitish ; flanks and belly ferruginous ; tail and wings brownish. The female is brownish above, beneath whitish-grey, with slight brown undulations.

This may be a state of Orocetes erythrogaster; but it does not sufficiently correspond.

There are no other recorded species of Petrocossyphus besides those mentioned here.