THE GROUND-THRUSHES. 



247 



russet-brown ; quills dusky brown, externally russet-brown, with 

 a pale margin to the first primary ; tail-feathers dusky brown, 

 with a russet tinge, the two outer ones with a tiny spot of white 

 at the tip ; head a little more russet than the back, the eye- 

 stripe fulvous and not so distinct as in the male ; ear-coverts 

 ochreous-buff mottled with blackish edgings to the feathers ; 

 cheeks ochraceous with a blackish line above and below, form- 

 ing a distinct moustachial streak ; under surface of body ochra- 

 ceous, whiter on the throat, which is spotted with dusky ; the 

 fore-neck and breast slightly more rufous, and mottled with 

 blackish subterminal bars to the feathers, less marked on the 

 sides of the body and flanks ; lower breast and abdomen pure 

 white ; thighs brown ; under tail-coverts white, with dusky 

 bases j under wing-coverts ochraceous brown ; axillaries white 

 with brown tips ; quills dusky below with the wing-band buffy- 

 white j " bill dark brown, the lower mandible and gape dirty 

 yellow to the angle of the gape ; feet and claws orange-yellow : 

 iris dark brown." ( W. Davison.) Total length, 9 inches ; cul- 

 men, o*8; wing, 4-5 j tail, 3*0; tarsus, 1*05. 



Young birds of the year may be distinguished by the pale ochre 

 tips to the wing-coverts. 



Range in Great Britain. — The late Mr. Frederic Bond pos- 

 sessed a specimen of this bird, which was sold to him 

 by a dealer as a variety of the Redwing, which had been 

 killed between Guildford and Godalming in the winter of 

 1860-61. Mr. Bond thoroughly believed in its genuineness, 

 and the specimen was one of the few which he wished to come 

 to the British Museum on his death, and which he bequeathed 

 to that institution in his will. Mr. Saunders has reason to 

 believe that a second example was picked up exhausted at Bon- 

 church, in the Isle of Wight, in the winter of 1874, but he does 

 not consider the evidence good enough to include the species 

 in the British List. After all, however, there is nothing so 

 wonderful in the occasional visit of this bird to Great Britain, 

 as it has occurred in several countries of Europe, and Mr. See- 

 bohm very aptly draws attention to the fact that thirty years 

 ago it would not have been easy for any dealer to have obtained 

 a specimen of the Siberian Thrush, even if he had wished to 

 palm it off as British-killed, so rare was the bird in collections 



