350. Zoothera monticola, Vigors.

Gould, Cent. H. B., pi. 22 - Blyth, Cat. 928 - Horsf., Cat. 263 - Turdus rostratus, Hodgson.

The Large Brown Thrush.

Descr. - Above, dark olive-brown, tinged with dusky-cinereous, browner on die wings, and the feathers faintly edged darker ; beneath, chin and throat white ; sides of the neck olive-brown, with dark centres to the feathers, tending to become white, with dark spots, on the centre of the breast; middle of the abdomen, vent and under tail-coverts, white, with olive-brown specks; flanks and thigh- coverts tinged with pale-ashy.

Bill horny-brown ; legs pale brown, irides dark brown. Length varies from 10 to 12 inches; wing from 5 1/4 to 6; tail 3 to 3 1/4 ; bill at front 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 ; tarsus 1 1/4 to 1 1/2.

This remarkable bird is found all through the Himalayan range, from Mussooree to Darjeeling, but nothing is known of its manners. The bill occasionally becomes unusually long, as in a specimen in the Asiatic Society's Museum. The coloring reminds the naturalist of many of the true Ant-Thrushes of S. America.

Blyth has described another species, Z. marginata, from the Khasia hills and Arracan; and Layard another from Ceylon, Z. imbricata. Myiothera andromeda, Temm., from Java and Sumatra, appears, from the figure, in Pl. Col. 392, to be rightly placed as a Zoothera by Hartlaub and Bonaparte.

The remainder of the family of short winged Thrushes consists chiefly of the so-called Ant-Thrushes of S. America, Formicarius, Formicivora, Grallaria, Myiothera, &c., of authors. They are mostly small birds of brown and spotted plumage, as are the Wrens and allied birds, such as Merulaxis, Scytalopus, Thriothorus, &c, which also enter this family. Gray includes among his Formicarinae, several Malayan genera, which are more generally assigned to the Timaline group, such as Malacopteron, Alcippe, Trichastoma, Macronons, Dymocataphus, Turdinus, Setornis, and Turdirostrum.

Two of these have representatives in India, and their situation in the natural system will be considered hereafter.