370 NOTES ON EUROPEAN THRUSHES. 



and the whole under surface behind the semiluue is of the same blackish 

 brown color, each feather very narrowly margined with whitish, the mar- 

 gins not beiug broader than those of the upper surface in the specimen 

 of T. aJpestris described. The upper surface of the wing is colored much 

 as iu the latter, but the light edges are very much narrower and their 

 color much duller and grayer, while the median coverts are entirely dif- 

 ferent, being brownish black, very narrowly margined with light gray, 

 like the feathers of the breast, and entirely without the broad white tips 

 of T. alpestris ; the lining of the wing is blackish-brown edged with light 

 gray, the axillaries somewhat lighter and mottled with light grayish. 

 This is the same plumage which is represented in Dresser's plate 14, 

 Vol. II, foreground figure. In order to make a very good representation 

 of T. alpestris in summer plumage^ it is only necessary to take the same 

 author's i)late 15, right-hand figure, which is a T. torquatvs in icinter 

 dress, and paint a white spot in the middle of each feather of the under 

 side of the body, behind the semilune, similar to those of the figure to 

 the left in the same plate, and to make the outer surface of the wing 

 correspondingly white. That the specimen of T. alpestris described by 

 me is not mislabeled, and that the bird is really in its summer plumage, 

 is proven beyond a doubt by the yellow bill and the worn condition of 

 the feathers. 



9 ad. ( U. S. iS af. Mus. iVb. 9t)(i2 ; "Europe " June 7 ; Baron r. Miille^-) . Nearly ideuti- 

 cal with the male, but the dark color browuer aud jpaler, especially on the upper 

 side, on which, besides, the lighter margins are broader but less distinct and blending 

 with the ground color, making the whole upper surface a nearly uniform grayish 

 brown, which becomes decidedly gray on the lower back and rump;* the white tips to 

 the median wing-coverts are more worn, but are plainly discernible; the whitish edg- 

 ings to the throat -feathers are somewhat broader, and on the flanks the white speculum 

 is often divided by a narrow blackish shaft stripe. Bill yellow ; feet light horn 

 brown. 



For comparison I have a female {'i^o. 18584) of the true T. torquatus, 

 from Denmark, precisely in the corresponding plumage, with yellow bill, 

 but perhaps a trifling less worn. The same differences exist as between 

 the males, but the coloration of the back is even more different in the 

 females, as in my T. alpestris 9 it resembles that of a very worn female 

 T. pilaris rather than that of T. torquatus. The large whitish wing- 

 patch, the white under wing-coverts, the white streaked throat, and the 

 speckled, V-marked under surface at once distinguish the female T. 

 alpestris. 



I have no adult winter specimens of the latter species, but it is sate 

 to assume, that the distinguishing characters will be found to be still 

 more pronounced, for the white margins are probably much broader. 

 On the under surface of an adult winter male T. torquatus from Norway 



*The central pair of tail-feathers is new, iu fact have not yet grown out to the 

 same length as the rest ; like these they are uniform blackish brown ; a few of the 

 upper coverts are also new and just out; these are decidedly tinged with yellowish 

 olive. 



