361. Merula boulboul, Lath.

Lanius apud Latham* - Blyth, Cat. 947 - Horsf., Cat. 275 - Turdus pcecilopterus, Vigors - Gould, Cent. Him. Birds, pl. 14 - Kasturi, H. - Patariya Masaicha, Beng. - Phoyiong-pho, Lepch. - Chomam, Bhot.

The Grey-winged Blackbird.

Descr. - Male, above black, with a large wing-spot, formed by the outer webs of the middle quills, and the greater wing-coverts, pale silvery ashy-grey; beneath somewhat paler black, tending to dusky-ashy.

The female is brownish-ashy, paler beneath, and the wing-spot rufescent-whitish. The young, as usual, are spotted with pale rufescent; and in some very old birds the wing-spot becomes almost white.

Bill, orbits, and legs, deep yellow. Length 10 1/4 inches; wing5 1/2  ; tail 4 ; bill at  front 7/8 ; tarsus 1 1/4.

The Grey-winged Blackbird is found throughout the whole extent of the Himalayas,  keeping generally to an elevation from 5,000 to 8,000 feet. It is tolerably common, but rather shy, and does not show itself in the open, or in gardens, so much as the Neilgherry Blackbird ; and its song is, I think, hardly equal to that of the Neilgherry bird. I obtained the nest at Darjeeling, made of twigs, roots, and moss, and with three or four eggs of a pale blue-green, with numerous light brown spots. It is occasionally caged in the N. W. Provinces, and Blyth has kept specimens for years in Calcutta. He tells me that it is sometimes, though rarely, captured in Lower Bengal.

The next species are allied to the M. torquata of Europe, and with it, too, have been separated under the name of Thoracocincla, which, however, I shall not adopt as a genus.