12 WHITES THRUSH. 



Many stragglers have been obtained, mostly in autumn, from 

 Norway and Sweden southwards to Italy and the Pyrenees. Dr. 

 Menzbier thinks that White's Thrush breeds no further off than the 

 Ural, as three specimens have been obtained there in summer; and 

 eastward this species, which might be more appropriately called 

 the " Golden " Thrush, extends through Siberia from about the line 

 of Krasnoiarsk on the Yenesei to Lake Baikal and Northern China ; 

 the winter migrations reaching to Southern China, the Philippines, 

 and even Sumatra. In Japan it is common in Yokohama market in 

 winter, and having been obtained in July on the volcano of Fuji, it 

 was probably breeding there. A nest built on a pine-branch, close 

 to which a pair of birds were seen, was obtained by Swinhoe near 

 Ningpo, and one of the eggs figured by Seebohm ('British Birds,' 

 pi. S) has a greenish-white ground with minute reddish spots : 

 measurements 12 by '9 in. White's Thrush is mostly insectivorous, 

 but in China banyan and other berries are consumed. Its note is a 

 soft plaintive see, audible at a long distance. 



In the adult the bill is brownish ; legs and feet yellowish-brown ; 

 upper plumage yellowish-brown tipped with black, darker on the 

 wings ; under parts white tinged with buff, and boldly marked with 

 black crescentic spots ; a distinct light-coloured patch in the middle of 

 the underside of the wing; tail oi fourteen feathers, the central four 

 yellowish-brown and the rest dark brown, all tipped with white. 

 Length 12 in.; wing 6"45 in. An Australian species, T. lunulatus, 

 with only tivelve tail-feathers, has not unfrequently been passed off 

 as White's Thrush. 



An example of the Siberian Thrush {T. sibirieus, Pallas), said to 

 have been shot in Surrey in the winter o( 1S60-61, and originally 

 supposed to be a melanism of the Redwing, was in the collection of 

 the late Mr. F. Bond, who bequeathed it to the British Museum : 

 while I fully believe that another was picked up exhausted at Bon- 

 church, I. of Wight, in the winter of 1S74 ; but the evidence as yet 

 is not sufficient to warrant the introduction of this species into the 

 British list. Like White's Thrush, it has the light-coloured patch 

 on the underside of the wing. The adult male is dark slate-grey, 

 with a conspicuous white eye-streak, and white abdomen ; the 

 female is olive-brown above, and whitish-buff barred with brown 

 beneath ; both sexes having white patches at the tips of t'he tail- 

 feathers. ^^'anderers have occurred as near our shores as France, 

 Belgium and (icrmanv. 



