All rights reserved. June, 1916. 



BIRD NOTES: 



THE 



JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 



My Laufihing Thrushes. 



By W. Shope Bailv. 



Not many a\-irulturists seem to have kept these in- 

 teresting- Thrushes, or if tlrey have, they have published very 

 little about them, either in the " Avicultural Magazine" or in 

 "Bird Notes." I, myself ha\'c only had experience of the one 

 species, viz.: the Eastern \'aricgatcd {T roc halo pie rum varie- 

 galum). These, to mo, are the most charming of all the dif- 

 ferent species, and I ha\c kept Blue Rock {Monticoln cyatms)^ 

 Red-legged Cuban {Al . rubriques) Blue Cuban {M. coeru- 

 lescens), as well as our English Blackbird, Ring Ousel, and 

 Fieldfare. Unlike the Rock Thrushes they are not in the least 

 shy, and are always (Jii \icw and generally in very active 

 movement, too. Xeitht^r are tliey ciuarrelsome with each other, 

 or with othei birds, a^ are both the Cuban, and .all the 

 English thrushes. In appearance they are striking looking 

 birds, about equal in size to the Fieldfare. Their general 

 coloui is grey, in two or three shades, a patch around the 

 eye and the throat black, a three cornered patch on oach 

 side of face dingy white; wings blue with a patch of black 

 on th(- shoulders, and a black bar across primaries; base of 

 tail feathers black, < cntre blue and tip white; under side of 

 tail iind lower breast rufous. They are indeed well named 

 "Variegated." The general eflect of the colouring is pleas- 

 ing, I obtained these birds from Major Perreau in May, 

 1913. lie brought over several other species at the same 

 time, including T. nlgrhncntuni, T. llneatum, Dryonastes rufl- 

 collis, and /). cacrulatus, etc. These, I believe found their way, 

 into \'arious amateur aviaries, but I have not heard that any 

 of them have been successful in rearing young in this country. 

 .Mv bird?, ha\ e been in out-door a\iaries e\ er since I have 



