214 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE .ZOOLOGY. 



This interesting bird, to which my attention was first called by Mr. Walter 

 Faxon, is an exceptionally brown, richly-colored specimen of the form which 

 Mr. Osgood has called verecunda.^ Although in full winter plumage, it retains 

 on its wing coverts several of those rusty, tear-shaped spots which are invariably 

 characteristic of the juvenal plumage of most Hylocichlae, and which also 

 frequently reappear in their first winter plumages. On comparing this speci- 

 men with the life-size figure of Turdus minor in the elephant folio edition 

 of Audubon's immortal work,^ Mr. Faxon and I find that the two correspond 

 satisfactorily in respect to their general coloring (that of the figure is some- 

 what browner, however, than that of the skin) and so very minutely in the 

 measurements of the various parts as to leave no doubt in our minds that the 

 l>ird here considered was that from which Audubon's figure of T. minor was 

 drawn. It was probably taken by Dr. Townsend soon after his arrival at the 

 Columbia Eiver, in the autumn of 1834, and should not be confounded with 

 the " female specimen of a Thrush " procured " on the Columbia River on the 

 19th June 1838," by Dr. Townsend, and said by Audubon " to differ in no other 

 respect from specimens of Turdus Wilsonii than in having some of the spots on 

 the sides of the neck and the breast of a darker brown." ^ The latter measured 

 '"seven inches two and a half twelfths in length," and was probably an Oregon 

 Thrush (Hylocichla ustulata). 



Turdus nanus was afterwards based by Audubon * partly on his plate of T. 

 minor, but also on a detailed description which closely fits the Columbia River 

 specimen now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, even the tear-shaped 

 spots being mentioned in the following terms : "Secondary coverts tipped with 

 yellowish-red, which on some of the inner runs a little way along the shaft." 

 Some of the measurements given in connection with this description do not, 

 however, agree with those of the Townsend skin. Very possibly they were 

 taken by Audubon from his note-book and originally from a fresh specimen of 

 a small eastern bird. 



These facts have convinced both Mr. Faxon and me that the specimen just 

 considered may be safely regarded as the actual type of Turdus nanus. If we 

 are correct in so thinking, this name, as I have already indicated, must neces- 

 sarily take the place of verecunda, provided the separation proposed by Mr. 

 Osgood be adopted. 



All of the four small Hermit Thrushes collected in the Cape Region by Mr. 

 Frazar are apparently referable to nana, although one of them (No. 14,527, 9 > 

 Triunfo, December 5, 1887) is somewhat too gray to be typical of that form, 

 and perhaps is intermediate between it and true guttata. Another, killed on 

 the Sierra de la Laguna on April 27, is in such worn and faded plumage as to 

 suggest that it may have been breeding. 



1 I have directly compared it with Mr. Osgood's series of breeding specimens 

 (including the type) of this form from the Queen Charlotte Islands. 



2 Birds Amer., pi. 419, fig. 1. 



3 Orn. Biog. V. 1849, 203, 204. 

 * Loc. cit., 204-206. 



