‘116 Notes from Alameda County. [ZOE 
a catbird which had strayed from his rightful home. I crept up 
cautiously for I only had a small 22 calibre cane-gun, and easily 
approached within twenty feet. It made no note and did not pay 
the least attention to ‘my maneuvers. - When I killed it, I was still 
more puzzled, for it was totally different from anything I had ever 
seen. It appeared much like some European thrush. 
The prevailing color is a dark hair brown varying to lighter or 
darker on different regions of the body. The top and sides of 
head, back, wings, tail and under-tail coverts are a uniform dark 
hair brown; throat somewhat streaked with ashy after the pattern 
of our robin, but the black streaks of the common bird are re- 
placed by brown and the white by ashy; jugulum conspicuously 
washed by dark rusty, abruptly terminating at the belly with faint 
indications of a black band as in Hesperocichla; feathers of belly 
broadly edged with ashy; flanks washed with rusty, with short ashy 
streaks effected by the shafts which are of an ashy color, with often 
slight margins of the same on each side: bill of same, dark brown 
color; tarsi and feet also darker. . 
The bill is less notched than ordinarily in robins. This, together 
with the peculiar disposition of the rusty wash, at first made me 
rather chary in referring the bird to Merula, but on closer inspection 
it seems to be undoubtedly a rare melanistic plumage of our western 
robin. In taking on this singular phase, it has departed from the 
disposition of color seen in the ordinary bird as will be seen by the 
following: The top of head is no darker than the rest of the back; 
the black and white streaks of the throat of the ordinary bird are 
replaced by close irregular streakings of dark chocolate over an 
ashy ground; the rusty wash of the jugulum, instead of following 
clear down the belly to tail coverts, terminates abruptly at the breast. 
and gives way to an ashy cast which continues to the vent. The 
under-tail coverts, instead of being the lightest part of the bird's 
coloration, is as dark as elsewhere, and there is no trace of the 
white tips on the outer tail teathers. The downy under plumage 
is also darker than in the common bird. 
These singular departures from the general tone of a ‘robin are 
inexplicable to me, and at first made me doubtful in calling the bird 
a robin. 
Although a few melanistic phases have been recorded of the east- 
ern species, this is, I believe, the first specimen of a melanistic west- 
ern robin recorded. 
