358. Turdulus cardis, Temm.

Turdus apud Temminck, Pl. Col., 518 - G. dissimilis, Blyth, J. A. S., XVI., 144 - &. G. unicolor, old male, Blyth, olim (the female).

The Variable Pied-blackbird.

Descr. - Male - Whole head, neck, breast, and upper plumage, black; beneath, from the breast, white; the abdomen and vent with broad black bars ; bill and legs yellow.

The female is olive-brown, tinged with cinereous, all the feathers being cinereous at the base; lores and ear-coverts brown, the latter with some of the feathers pale-shafted; a small supercilium and orbits buff; beneath, the chin and throat white, tinged ferruginous : a dark brown streak from the lower mandible down the sides of the neck ; breast pale cinereous-brown, with some darker brown spots, which pass into the brown neck-stripe; the sides of the abdomen and of the breast rich bright ferruginous.

Bill dusky-yellow ; legs yellowish; irides brown. Length 8 ½ inches ; wing 4 1/2 ; tail 3 ; bill at front 11/16; tarsus 1 1/10.

The male of this Blackbird resembles the last; but differs in wanting the white markings on the upper plumage, being thus more allied to the true * Blackbirds.'

The male bird has not, to my knowledge, been obtained in India; but the female was procured by Mr. Blyth in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, and, though at first considered distinct, was afterwards referred to Geocichla unicolor as a fully adult or old male. It is chiefly an inhabitant of China and Japan, probably migrating southward during the winter, and will most probably be found in Upper Burmah. The female so much resembles the coloration of Turdus chrysolaus, Temm., Pl. Col., 537, that, judging from the figure alone, I cannot help suspecting their identity.

Very probably, other species should be included in this group : among others, Turdus sibiricus, Gmel. (T. leucocillus, Pall.) ; T. mutabilis, Tem., of Java, formerly confounded with the last by Bonaparte ; and, I strongly suspect, Turdus interpres, Kuhl, of Java, which Bonaparte classes as a Geocichla, and which chiefly differs from T. Wardii, in having a chesnut head and nape. Gray's Turdus avensis, which Blyth suspects to be allied to Enicurus, appears to me to be the same bird, or is, at all events, a very nearly allied species. Perhaps, also T. terrestris, Kittl., (T. aonalasckka, Gmel., Myiothera passerina, of the Leyden Museum) belongs here.