HISTORY OF THE HYLOCICHL.E 27 



part, as already shown. It appears to have been first ade- 

 quately described by Alexander Wilson, in 1812, under the 

 unfortunate name of Tawny Thrush, Turdus musfelinus, not- 

 withstanding that this author clearly perceived it was not the 

 "Tawny Thrush" of Pennant, upon which Gmelin's name T. 

 mtistelinus rested. The same bird was redescribed by Stephens, 

 in his continuation of Shaw's General Zoology, in 1817, under 

 the new name of Turdus fuscescens, which is now generally 

 adopted. Yieillot, perceiving Wilson's double employ of the 

 term T. mustelhius, hestowed upon it the name T.sitens in 1823. 

 Very shortly afterward, the Prince Bonaparte, also noting 

 Wilson's error, but either ignoring or ignorant of both Steph- 

 ens' and Yieillot's prior designations, dedicated the species to 

 Wilson, calling it Turdus ui'ilsonii, a name current among 

 authors for several years. These are the only original names 

 I have met with of undoubted applicability' to the present 

 species; though Swainson and other writers have called the 

 bird T. minor after Gmelin, and Dr. Brewer has once applied 

 to it the term T. hrunneus. 



The Wood Thrush being a bird of more marked characters 

 than any one of the others, there has been little or no uncer- 

 tainty respecting it. The original descriptions — the earliest 

 at least that have come to light so far — were those of Latham 

 and Pennant, who describe it from Xew York under the name 

 of Tawny Thrush, the basis of T. mustelinus of Gmelin. W'ilson, 

 having appropriated this name to another species, as we have 

 already seen, called the Wood Thrush T. melodus — in so doing 

 apparently following Bartram,who had called it T.melodesm 1791. 



^'^' 



Fig. 4.— Head of "Wood Thrush. Kat. size. 



The synonymy given at the head of the several species rep- 

 resents an epitome of the whole subject here treated, with a 

 great many additional references to the writings of various 

 authors. As the Wood Thrush will not be formally introduced 



