136 Mr. C. Ingram — Ornithological 



were remarkably cautious and refused to return to their 

 eggs "while there was the least sign of danger. I was 

 therefore obliged to waste the best part of a morning before 

 being able to procure a female at the nest. 



The structure is usually placed in tlie branches of a 

 coniferous tree about ten or twelve feet from the ground. 

 Externally moss is very largely used ; a distinct cup is then 

 formed of a mixture of clay and fragments of rotten wood, 

 which in turn is lined with rootlets^ black fern-stalks, and a 

 few dried grass-bents. 



The cg<;js are creamy grey, boldly blotched with lilac 

 underlying marks and spotted with rusty-brown overlying 

 marks. Jouy says (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1883, p. 279) 

 that they are rather larger than those of T. chrysolnus, but 

 my specimens are smaller, averaging only I'Ox 0'7r in. 



4. TuKDUs CHKVsoLAUs Tcuim. Japanese Brown Thrush. 



Merula chrysoluus Seebohnij B. Jap. Emp. p. 48. 



Jap. : Akahara. 



The Japanese Brown Thrush was very jdentiful near 

 Subashiri, where, owing to the facility with which its 

 nests could be found, I was able to procure a fine series 

 of eggs. It is a good songster, but its voice is not so 

 rich or varied as that of the preceding species. When 

 rising from the ground it utters a noisy chattering cry 

 very like that of a Blackbird, and it also has a similar 

 note when theic is danger near its nest — a thin, piercing 

 sound. It builds in a variety of situations, but the favourite 

 site is in the branches of a small cryptomeria, pine, or 

 spruce from five to fifteen feet above the ground. The nests 

 themselves vary about as much as do the eggs : commonly 

 they are composed of dried grasses, stiaw, roots, &c., but 

 more rarely they arc made almost entirely of green moss and 

 lined with dead leaves; I have also found horsehah* used. 

 The whole structure contains very little, or usually no mud, 

 and in this respect always differs from the nest of T. cardis, 

 which has a complete sub-lining of a clay-like substance. 

 The usual type of egg has the ground-colour pale greyish 



