370.    Oreocincla mollissima, Blyth.

Turdus apud Blyth, J. A. S., XL, 185 - Blyth, Cat. 931 -  Horsf., Cat. 267 - T. rostratus and T. oreocincloides, Hodgson -  T. Hodgsonii, Homeyer - Phanaiok-kiok-pho, Lepch. -  Teliakanrim, Bhot.

The Plain-backed Mountain Thrush

Descr. - Uniform rich olive-brown above, with a slight tinge of orange ; wing-coverts and tertiaries margined paler; the greater coverts tipped with black; the inner webs of the primaries dusky, the outer emarginate ; under surface of wing marked black and white; the four central feathers of the tail brown ; the outermost pair albescent-brown with whitish tips, the two next having successively less white at  the tip, and the remainder of the tail being blackish; under parts clear fulvous-white, deeper on the breast and whitish along the centre of the belly ; very richly spotted with deep black, more densely so than O. dauma; the spots are triangular on the throat, neck and breast; broad, transverse, and crescentic, below the breast; the orbits and eye-streak pale fulvous.

Bill dusky, yellowish at the base of the lower mandible; legs light brown; irides hazel-brown. Length 9 1/2 inches ; wing 5 3/8; tail 4; bill at front 3/4 ; tarsus 1 3/8; 3rd and 4th primaries equal and longest.

This Thrush, by its plain-coloured back, evidently links the true Thrushes to the Mountain Thrushes. Mr. Blyth named it mollissimus, when he considered it as simply a Turdus; for it is not more soft in its plumage than the other Oreocmclae, perhaps indeed less so.

It is not uncommon about Darjeeling. I have generally found it feeding on the  ground, in small parties, on a rather bare spot on the very summit of some hill, and flying into the brushwood when disturbed. I have found it chiefly at from 4,000 to 8,000 feet. It feeds on insects and berries. It extends throughout the Himalayas ; for it has been procured both in Nepal and Kumaon, as well as in Sikhim.