5 ae
1857, it was common ‘among the Acroceraunian mountains,” where

Lord Lilford informs us that in May,
he “ found its nests among the débris carrie
points of that range.” He also “ once or twice observed

d down by the melting of the snows on Ischika, one of the highest
it in the island of Corfu, where it is highly prized as

a singing bird.”
When speaking of the birds observed round Pisa in 1864, Dr. Henry

ance; and the Petrocincla savatilis may then be seen perched on the

Giglioli says :—‘‘In April the two
Rock-Thrushes make their appear
detached masses of limestone which adorn the flanks of the Monte Pisano.”

“The Rock-Thrush,” says Bailly, in his ‘Ornithologie de la Savoie,’ “ is not uncommon in the summer
among the rocks and the more stony parts of our Alpine regions ; it is also On the lower rocks, on
hillocks on the plains, and on hills such as those of Charmettes, from the former habitation of J. J. Rousseau,
to the confines of Montagnole, situations naturally of a rocky character, and which border the lake of
Bourget, in the proximity of the Abbey of Hautecombe. The rocks which coast the principal route
of Mont-du-Chat, as well as the quarries of Lemenc, near Chambery, are also regularly frequented by
a few pairs, which remain and breed. The males, nearly always, arrive alone from the 12th to the 20th of
April, according as the spring may be early or late. The females, which also arrive alone, seldom appear
until four, five, or six days later. They then pair. The males on the very day they arrive survey the
district and its neighbourhood, apparently for convenient sites for the purpose. When in repose, and
especially in the morning, they are to be seen on the tops of rocks or isolated stones, and sometimes on the
top of a tree, whence they commence a song, which resembles at intervals that of the Blue Thrush, and in
the flexibility, softness, and variety of its notes that of the Orpbeus Warbler and the Blackcap. They
often rise perpendicularly in the air, and descend again, with wings extended and still singing, to the spot
whence they rose. Sometimes they flutter along the rocks in a series of undulations, all the while uttering
their song ; but they never sing with so much grace and cheerfulness as when they again see their females ;
they immediately mount in the air for a considerable distance, descend again, nearly vertically, and pour
forth, with volubility, all the harmony their voice is capable of expressing. As soon as paired, the male
and female hasten to seek, in the clefts and holes of the rocks, in ruins situated on some high point, in stony
declivities interspersed with shrubs, and more rarely in the holes of abandoned logs, a suitable site for
the construction of the nest, which being found, they immediately commence transporting the necessary
materials, consisting of small roots, moss, and straw, for the formation of the exterior, and fine herbs, the
fibres of plants, and soft roots to line the interior. The female lays four or five eggs, of a bluish green ;
sometimes they are without spots, at others they are almost imperceptibly spotted with brown at the
larger end. If the parents, when bringing food to their young, perceive an intruder, they wait on the top
of a rock or shrub till he is gone; indeed they appear never to go direct to the nest, but descend at some
distance from it, and run along the paths or rocks until an opportunity offers of feeding their young in
safety and secrecy. The adults migrate about the end of August, and the young about the 8th of
September.”

From the localities above mentioned, the range of the Rock-Thrush would seem to extend as far north
as Heligoland, since examples have been killed in that island.

Considerable difference occurs in the colouring of the sexes, and a certain amount of variation in that of
the males—those that are newly moulted having the feathers of the breast and under surface tipped with
crescents of light grey, which gradually disappear, until the bird assumes a uniform colour.

The male has the head, neck, and upper part of the back blue-grey, passing into brown on the sca-
pularies ; centre of the back white ; upper tail-coverts dark bluish brown, slightly tipped with greyish white ;
lesser wing-coverts dark brown, almost black, tipped with white ; greater coverts and sentelindlen of the
wings brown, the pau es faintly edged at the tip with white; breast, and all the under surface light
chestnut-brown, with, in most specimens, a crescent of grey at the tip; tail deep rusty red, with a wash of
brown on the two central feathers ; bill black; irides dark hazel ; legs and toes dark reddish brown.

‘he female hes the whole a the upper surface of a dull brown; on the lower part of the back an indi-
cation of the white mark seen in the male; throat and sides of the throat tawny; under surface the same
colour but deeper, ar feather bordered with transverse markings of brown at the tip; tail and other parts
of the plumage as in the male.

The Plate represents an adult male, drawn from life, in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, and a
ou of the female in the distance. The three plants are Rhododendron ferrugineum, Savifraga
Cue and a species of Cassula?, taken from the sketch-book of Mr. Wolf, who made the drawings
in the Alps. 2