356. Geocichla unicolor, Tickell.

Turdus apud Tickell - Blyth, Cat. 954 - Horsf., Cat. 261 -  Petroc-homochroa, Hodgson - Desi Pawai, H. - Machasah, Beng. Poda palisa, Tel.

The Dusky Ground-thrush.

Descr. - Male, above uniform dusky slaty ash-color; chin nearly white; throat pale ashy; breast ashy; abdomen and lower tail-coverts white; under wing-coverts and flanks of abdomen ferruginous.

The female is olive-brown above, ashy about the rump ; ear-coverts ashy brown,  with light shafts; beneath, the chin and throat albescent, or very pale ashy, bordered by a dark stripe from the base of the lower mandible, and the feathers of the throat and neck streaked with dusky-brown ; the breast and sides ashy-brown, tinged with fulvous, or olive-brown on the flanks ; belly, vent, and lower tail-coverts, white.Bill dusky-yellow ; eyelids and gape yellow; legs brownish- yellow ; irides brown. Length 9 inches; extent 14 1/2 ; wing 4 1/2;; tail 3 1/8-; bill at front 11/16; tarsus 1 1/8

This Ground-thrush is found throughout the whole extent of the Himalayas, migrating in winter to various of the more wooded districts in the plains of India. It is tolerably common about Calcutta: Tickell procured it in Central India ; and I obtained it from the Eastern Ghats and the Deccan, but I did not find it in the Malabar forests. It appears to be more abundant in the N. W. Himalayas than towards the South-east; and it is not common in Sikhim. Adams states that it is the ' Song Thrush' of Cashmere ; with a song something like that of the Blackbird, but of fewer notes, and not so much varied. Hutton obtained the nest at Mussooree in June, made of roots and moss, usually placed against the body of a tree, where some twigs jut out, or on a horizontal branch ; the eggs, three or four in number, are dull greenish-white, speckled, blotched, and spotted with rufous.

Bonaparte, in his Conspectus, includes in this genus, Merula castanea and M. nestor of Gould, the former Indian, and the latter Australian; but I think that these rank much better with the Blackbird group.

The next two birds, which I place together, are intermediate between the Ground-thrushes and the Blackbirds, the males being black and white and the females more or less olive-brown above. To this type, Bonaparte has given the name of Cichloselys, of which Turdus cardis, Tem., is the type. Hodgson, however, appears previously to have named the group Turdulus (as a division of Oreocincla), with Turdus Wardii as the type. As these two forms appear to me to be the same, I shall adopt Hodgson's name.