534 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



to be of any use is the shadbush, Amalanchier canadensis. Per- 

 haps if some enterprising bird student could introduce a very early variety 

 of this service berry, and grow it for planting as ornament about the 

 lawns and farmyards, he would do a great service to the Robin and to 

 the horticulturist. 



Ixoreus naevius naevius (Gmelin) 

 Varied Thrush 



Turd us noevius Gmelin. Syst. Nat. 1789. 1:817 



Ixoreus naevius naevius A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 364. 

 No. 763 

 ixoreus = ii;ofS<Sp o?, eating the mistletoe, the Missel thrush; naevius, Lat., spotted 



Description. Upper parts dark slate color; wings and tail blackish; 

 2 conspicuous wing bars of orange brown; some of the quills edged with the 

 same; quills white at the base on their inner webs, but this marking is 

 not visible when the wing is closed; one or more of the lateral tail feathers 

 are tipped with white; bright black collar crosses the breast and runs up the 

 sides of the neck and head; stripe on the side of the head backward from the 

 eye and under parts orange brown gradually changing to white on the lower 

 belly; bill black; feet yellowish. Female: Very much duller on the back 

 but in a similar pattern. Young: Resemble the female but have no white 

 on the belly, but the under part often washed with umber brown, the young 

 females sometimes showing scarcely a trace of the collar. 



Length about 10 inches; extent 16; wing 5; tail 3.7; bill .8; tarsus 1.25. 



Distribution. The Varied thrush inhabits the Pacific coastal region, 

 breeding from Yakutat bay, Alaska, to Humboldt county, California, and 

 wintering from southern Alaska to the Colorado river and frequently 

 straggling eastward in the winter time. Besides several specimens from 

 New Jersey and Massachusetts, at least three different specimens of this 

 thrush have been taken in New York State, the first from Islip, L. I., 

 reported by G. N. Lawrence (see Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, 1, 29; and 

 Coues, " Birds of Colorado Valley," page 19; also Annals Lye. Nat. Hist. 

 N. Y., 8, 1866, 281; and Boston Society Natural History 3, 1848, 17). 

 Specimen from Port Jefferson, L. I., December 20, 1889, a male, collected 

 by A. H. Helme, reported by Dutcher, Linnaean Society of New York 

 Proc, No. 2, page 9. A specimen from Millers Place, L. I., November 19, 



