214 



U. S. p. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS ZOOLOGY — GENERAL REPORT. 



The shade of the back is the same, perhaps a little more olive in T, nanus, in which the 

 centres of the feathers of the crown are a little more dusky. There is also in nanus a slight 

 purple tinge in the tail. The under parts show a purer white behind, and the sides, axillaries, 

 and under wing coverts show a bluish gray tinge rather than a pale brownish yellow. The 

 under tail coverts are pure white, without the usual tinge of buff. There is no essential differ- 

 ence in the proportion of the quills. The tail may possibly be more rounded in nanus. 



List of specimens. 



TURDUS FUSCESCENS, Stephens. 



Wilson's Thrush. 



Turdus fuscescens, Stephens, Shaw's Zool. Birds, X, i, 1817, 182.— Gray, Genera, 1849. 



Turdus vmslelinus, Wilson, Am. Orn. V, 1819, 98 ; pi. 43, (not of Gm.) 



Turdus wilsonii, Bon. Obs. Wils. 1825, No. 73, (not of Swainson.)— Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 271.— Nutt. Man. I, 



1832, 349.— Ann. Orn. Biog. 11, 1834, 362 : V, 446 ; pi. 1G6.— Ib. Birds Am. Ill, 1841, 27 ; pi. 



145.— Brewer, Pr. Bost. N. H. Soc. I, 1844, 191.— Cabanis, in Tschudi Fauna Peruana, 1844- 



'46, 205. 

 Turdus minor, Gm. I, 1788, 809. (From Pennant and Latham, compounded of this and T. swainsonii.) — D'Orbignt, 



De la Sagra's Cuba, Birds, 47 ; pi. v. 

 Merula minor, Swainson, F. Bor. Am. IT, 1831, 179, (plate that of swainsonii.) 

 Turdusiliacus carolinensis , Brisson, II, 1760, 212. 

 ? Turdus parvus, (Edw.) Seligmann, Simml. VIII, 1775, pi. ixxxvi. 

 • lAttk Thrush, Latham, Synopsis II, i, 1783, 20. 



Sp. Ch. — Third quill longest ; fourth a little shorter ; second nearly a quarter of an inch longer than the fiflh. Above, and 

 on sides of head and neck, nearly uniform liglil reddish brown, with a faint tendency to orange on the crown and tail. Beneath, 

 white ; the fore part of the breast and throat (paler on the chin) tinged with pale brownish yellow, in decided contrast to the 

 white of the belly. The sides of the throat and the fore part of the breast as colored are marked with small triangular spots of 

 light brownish, nearly like the back, but not well defmed. There are a few obsolete blotches on the sides of the breast (in the 

 white) of pale olivaceous ; the sides of the body tinged with the same. Tibiae white. Tiio lower mandible is brownish only 

 at the tip. The lores are ash colored. Length, 7.50 ; wing, 4.25 ; tail, 3.20 ; tarsus, 1.20. 



IJab. — Eastern North America to the Missouri ; north to fur countries. 



This species is well distinguished among the American thrushes by the indistinctness of 

 the spots beneath, and their being confined mainly to the fore part of tlie breast. In some 

 specimens there is a faint tendency to a more vivid color on tlie rump, but this is usually like 

 the back, which is very nearly the color of the rump in T. pallasii. 



One specimen (6992) is quite remarkable for the shortness of the bill, which only measures 

 half an inch above instead of .65 of an inch as in other specimens. I am, however, unable to 

 appreciate any other difference. 



