23i THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



63.— White's Thrush [Bunte Drossel]. 

 TUEDUS VARIUS, Pallas. 



Heligolandish : Gold-Troossel = (Jo/f? Thrush. 



Turdus niiitei. Kaumami, xiii. 262. 



White's Thriish. Dresser, ii. 77. 



Merle varie ou de Wilhe. Teimuinck, Manuel, iv. 602. 



This fine large species from eastern Asia has up to the present 

 been shot thirteen times in Heligoland, and has been observed from 

 six to eight times besides. Five of these birds I stuffed for my 

 own collection, four of which still remain amongst its permanent 

 ornaments, while the fifth, a fine male, caught on the 3rd of Septem- 

 ber 1846, I presented to my dear friend. Professor Alfred Newton 

 of Cambridge. 



The dates of the occurrence of these examples, so far as I have 

 been able to ascertain them, are as follows : — October 1827, Sep- 

 tember 1834, October 1836, October 1S40, 3rd September 1846, 

 3rd October 1849 (a splendid male), 4th October 18G4 (a female), 

 23rd April 1869 (a male, much faded and damaged), 1st October 

 1869, 16th October 1869 (a fine female), 18th September 1870, 9th 

 October 1872 (a male), 3rd October 1884 (a female). 



Apart from those named above, Reymers and old Koopmann 

 have repeatedly caught and prepared specimens of this Thrush in 

 the interval between 182.5 and 1837 ; the dates of these are, however, 

 no longer determinable ; to them belong the two examples men- 

 tioned by Gould in his Birds of Europe as caught near Hamburg, 

 one of which, according to Newton, is still in the possession of 

 Mr. Baker, of Hardwick Court, Ensfland, while the other belonsrs to 

 the next very similar species. Tardus dauma. 



On the continent of Europe about fifteen examples of White's 

 Thrush have been killed in the course of the last hundred years — 

 the first known instance dating back to the year 1788. In England, 

 the bird, according to Newton, has been seen nine times, from 1828 

 to 1872, all the examples having been shot with the exception of 

 one. These eight specimens are distributed among several well- 

 known collections. 



This strikingly beautiful Thrush is at once distinguished from 

 all hitherto known European species by the variegated plumage, 

 not only of its under surface, but also of its upper parts. 



In freshly-moulted autumn birds, all the upper parts are of a 

 beautiful clean, almost golden olive colour (golduj-olivcnfarhen); 

 every feather has its shaft marked by a light yellow stripe, and is 



