Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/149

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MERULA.
135


abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts white, the last basally margined with brown ; wings and tail brown, suffused with olive on the outer webs ; axillaries and under wing-coverts slaty grey.

Female. Resembles the male in general coloration, but has the crown always of the same colour as the upper plumage ; the lores and ear-coverts pale, the latter with whitish shafts ; the middle of the chin and throat white with a few minute brown streaks.

Iris olive-brown ; eyelids greenish ; upper mandible dark brown ; lower mandible and gape yellow ; inside of mouth yellow ; legs yellowish brown ; claws horn-colour.

Length nearly 9; tail 3-5; wing 4-8; tarsus 1-2; bill from gape 1-1.

Distribution. A winter visitor, more or less abundant, to the whole of Burma, the Andamans, Manipur, Shillong, Sikhim, and Nepal. An occasional straggler visits the plains of India, and in the Hume Collection there is a specimen procured at Belgaum in March. In the winter this species extends to China and to the Malay peninsula and islands, and it summers in Siberia.

681. Merula subobscnra. Salvador's Ouzel.

Merula subobscura. Salvador!. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. (2) i, p. 413 (1889).

Coloration. Similar to Merula obscura but larger, with the white superciliary band less conspicuous, the sides of the body paler ochraceous, and the proportion of the primaries different.

The type of this species, the only specimen known, was procured by Mr. 1'ea at Taho in the Karen hills, north-east of Toungngoo, in March. It is an adult male.

The measurements of this specimen are : length 10 ; tail 3'8 ; wing 5-25 ; tarsus 1'2; bill from gape 1.

The third and fourth primaries are subeqnal and longest ; the second shorter than the fifth and longer than the sixth. In M. olscura the third primary is the longest, the fourth is rather shorter than the third, and the second is between the fourth and fifth.

I have examined the type of this species and I have failed to find any example of this Thrush from Burma in the British Museum series.

682. Merula feae. Feet's Ouzel.

Turdus chrysolaus, Temm., apud Godiv.-Aust. J. A. 8. B. xxxix, pt. ii, p. 102, xli, pt. ii, p. 143.

Turdulus pallens (rail.}, apud Godw.-Amt. J. A. S. B. xliii, pt. ii, p. 178.

Turdus pallidus, Gmel., apud Godw.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xlv, pt. ii, p. 196 ; Hume $ Dav. 8. F. vi, p. 253 ; Hume, Cat. no. (}'.) tt>r : id. S. F. xi, p. 130.

Merula pallida, GmeL, apud Oates, B. B. i, p. 2. Merula feae, Sakadori, Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. (2) v, p. 514 (1887), p. 610 (1888).

Turdus subpallidus, Hume, S. F. xi, p. 132 (1888).