lO BLACK-THROATED THRUSH. 



4,000 feet, and probably in the valley of the Ob ; and although 

 too late for eggs, the late Mr. Seebohni obtained three young not 

 fully-fledged in the valley of the Yenesei between 60° and 63° N. 

 lat., early in August. Herr Tancre's collectors have obtained a 

 series of eggs in the Altai Mountains which "exhibit the same 

 variation in colour as the eggs of the Blackbird, and measure from 

 1-2 to 1-15 in. in length, and from -S to 75 in. in breadth" (See- 

 bohni). This Thrush winters in Northern Persia, Afghanistan, 

 Turkestan, Baluchistan, and India, as far south as Assam ; its range 

 extending eastward to Lake Baikal. There it meets with the Red- 

 throated Thrush, T. ritficollis, a species which has wandered to 

 Heligoland and Saxony. 



The food of this species is stated by Dr. Scully to consist in 

 winter chiefly, of the berries of Eleagnus, a diet varied with 

 insects and worms. Favourite haunts in the cold season are sand- 

 hills, low scrub, and trees bordering watercourses ; while Seebohm 

 found that in summer a marked preference was shown for pine- 

 trees, and the neighbourhood of the banks of the river where the 

 forest had been cut down for fuel. The song of this species is 

 undescribed. 



The adult male in breeding-plumage has the throat and breast 

 black ; belly white, turning to greyish-brown on the sides and flanks ; 

 upper parts olive-brown, darker on the wings and tail. In winter 

 the throat-feathers have light margins, and the general plumage is 

 duller. The young male resembles the adult female, in which the 

 feathers of the throat and breast are not completely black, but have 

 merely dark centres, forming a streaked gorget ; under parts dull 

 creamy-white. In both sexes the under-wing and axillaries are 

 golden buff. Bill dark brown above, pale below \ legs and feet pale 

 brown. Length about 975 in., wing 5-45 in. 



Turdus migratoriits, commonly called in North America ' the 

 Robin,' owing to its ruddy breast, has been obtained at Dover ; 

 but, like the Wydah-bird and other exotic species obtained in that 

 locality, it had probably escaped from some ship passing through 

 the narrow seas. An example taken near Dublin in May 1891, and 

 another from Leitrim, Dec. 1894, are both in the Dublin Museum, 

 while one was obtained alive near Leicester in Oct. 1893. The 

 species has occurred once at Heligoland, on the high road of vessels 

 for Bremen and Hamburg ; and it is not unfrequently brought to 

 Europe as a cage-bird. 



