SIBERIAN GROUND-THRUSH. 205 
from the Lower Oder, from the island of Riigen, from France, Belgium, 
Italy, and Turkey. The Siberian Ground-Thrush breeds in the valleys of 
the Yenesay and the Lena, between lat. 67° and 68°, and also near Yokohama 
in Japan. It winters in China, Burma, Sumatra, and Java, and has once 
occurred on the Andaman Islands. 
When Dresser’s ‘ Birds of Europe’ was written nothing whatever was 
known of its habits or its breeding-haunts. I am sorry that I cannot give 
many particulars respecting these. When I was in Siberia I occasionally 
caught a hasty glimpse of a dark-coloured Thrush with a very conspicuous 
white eyebrow, not far from the village of Koorayika on the Arctic circle, 
whilst the remains of the ice were still straggling down the Yenesay. It 
was an extremely shy and wary bird; and though I occasionally saw it 
crossing the open ground between the birch-plantations, I did not succeed 
in shooting one until the 19th of June. I was then walking in a dense 
birch-plantation ; the leaves were not yet out on the trees; and a fortnight 
before the ground had been covered with a thick bed of snow. This had 
melted and exposed a thick bed of leaves, the accumulation of many years. 
As I was walking along I noticed a bird at some distance before me on the 
ground, and presently caught sight of its white eyebrow. The bird was 
very busy searching for food amongst the dead leaves ; and I had the good 
fortune to secure it. It proved to be a fine male in adult plumage. I saw 
one or two afterwards in the same locality, but was unable to get within 
shot. I did not see it further north than the Koorayika ; but my travelling 
companion, Mr. Boiling, assured me that he saw one in lat. 68°, and I found 
that it was well known to the inhabitants as the Chérnoi Drézht, or Black 
Thrush. They informed me that it was by no means uncommon during 
the breeding-season at Toorokansk. Messrs. Blakiston and Pryer, in their 
notes on the Birds of Japan (Ibis, 1878, p. 241), state that this bird is 
possessed of a not very loud but sweet song, for which reason it is a favourite 
cage-bird there. Nothing whatever is known of its eggs or nest. 
The male bird is dark slate-grey, with a very conspicuous white eyebrow, 
and with the centre of the belly, the tips of the under tail-coverts, a spot at 
the end of the outside tail-feather on each side, and the peculiar Geocichline 
pattern on the under surface of the wing pure white. Bill black ; legs very 
light brown ; irides dark hazel. The female differs from the male in having 
the upper parts olive-brown, shading into dull slate-grey on the rump and 
upper tail-coverts ; eye-stripe buff, shading into white on the nape; wings 
and wing-coverts russet-brown ; underparts white, shading into brown on the 
flanks, and into buff on the breast, each feather tipped with olive-brown. 
Males of the year are suffused with brown on the head and wings, and have 
ochraceous tips to the greater and some of the median wing-coverts ; the 
chin and throat are also suffused with ochraceous, and the throat and breast 
are barred. 
