TURDUS. 19 
found it in the State of Vera Cruz, says 2° that it is perhaps the most abundant of all 
the Mexican Turdide, that it is resident in the hot and temperate regions, but does not 
pass above an elevation of 4300 feet. He afterwards found it on the isthmus of 
Tehuantepec; but there it was not so common'!®. In Guatemala Turdus grayi is 
common in the neighbourhood of towns and villages up to an elevation of between 
5000 and 6000 feet. It was found breeding in abundance in April and May near 
Duefas, and also near San Gerénimo in Vera Paz. It is usually to be seen in the 
outskirts of plantations and in the orchards near houses, but not so much in the forest 
away from habitations. Its song is rich and of considerable compass, being quite equal 
to that of any of its congeners. Its powers of song make it a favourite cage-bird in 
Spanish and native houses. Dr. v. Frantzius, who seems to have been less favourably 
impressed with the song:of Turdus grayi in Costa Rica than we were with it in 
Guatemala, says?! that it is one of the commonest birds in Costa Rica, and that he 
met with it from the shores of the Gulf of Nicoya to places as much as 6000 feet 
above the sea, but that it is more rarely seen during the dry season than during the 
wet, at the commencement of which it breeds, and when its monotonous song may be 
heard everywhere from morning till night till it becomes wearisome. Its food in the 
dry season consists of the small fruits of the various species of Ficus, which at this time 
of year are found in great quantities. 
Turdus grayt is subject to but slight variation in different parts of its wide range. The 
most noticeable divergence from the normal colour prevalent in Guatemala is to be seen 
in some specimens from Costa Rica and Panama, which are of a greyer tint ; upon one 
of these Bonaparte seems to have founded his 7. casius *°, a bird Mr. Lawrence was at 
one time disposed to admit as a species distinct from 7. grayi*4. But as these greyer 
birds are found with others of the normal colour, we think their claims to separation 
hardly established. In the neighbourhood of Santa Marta, in Colombia, a small race of 
T. grayi is found which is rather less cinnamon in tint than the usual form ; it is also 
paler beneath. This race has been described by Bonaparte as Turdus luridus; but we 
do not think it ought to be admitted as specifically different from 7. grayi. 
In Guatemala Gray’s Thrush builds in low bushes a nest of roots and fibres and small 
twigs, lining it with dry grass and fine roots. The eggs, usually three in number, are 
more or less covered with spots and blotches of red-brown on a ground of pale bluish 
green. One of them is figured in ‘The Ibis’ for 1859, t.v. f. 7. They measure 1:2 x°8. 
} 
11. Turdus obsoletus. 
Turdus obsoletus, Lawr. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. vii. p. 470°, ix. pp. 91°, 145°; Baird, Rev. Am. B. p. 28°; 
Salv. P. Z. S. 1867, p. 183°, 1870, p. 180°; Ibis, 1869, p. 312"; v. Frantzius, J. f. Orn. 1869, 
p- 290°. 
Supra cinnamomeo-brunneus unicolor; subtus paulo dilutior, gutture striolis fuscis vix apparentibus, ventre 
3* 
