i8 White's Thrush. 



science, was named Turdiis ivhiiei by Eyton, in honour of White, of Selbourne : 

 thus the trivial name of White's Thrush was first applied to it. 



The upper surface of this species is ochraceous brown, with black tips to the 

 feathers; the wing feathers are darker and tipped with buff; the tail has fourteen 

 feathers, the four central ones ochraceous brown, the others dark brown, all tipped 

 with white ; the under surface is white, tinged with buff on the breast, and boldly 

 spotted with black crescent-shaped markings : the bill is brown, the lower mandible 

 paler ; the feet yellowish brown, the iris dark brown. The sexes are supposed to 

 be alike. In size, this species rather excels the Missel-Thrush. 



The nidification of White's Thrush was observed in 1872, at Ningpo, b}' the 

 late Consul Swinhoe : the nest was roughly built, and situated on a fork of a 

 horizontal pine-branch ; its outside consisted of dead rushes, grasses, a few twigs, 

 dead leaves and a little moss ; it was thickly plastered with mud, amongst which 

 were fragments of some green weed ; the inside, like that of the Blackbird, was 

 thickly lined with mud, covered with an inner lining of coarse rootlets and sedgy 

 grass. 



Three eggs only were in the nest ; but the complete clutch would probably 

 number four or five ; \lr. Seebohra, who secured the nest and two of the eggs 

 for his collection, thus describes them : — " They resemble those of the Missel- 

 Thrush ; but the ground-colour is slightly paler, and the spots much finer, more 

 numerous, and more evenly distributed." 



The flight of White's Thrush, unlike that of our common species, is said to 

 be " very undulating, like that of the Green Woodpecker, and low, often settling 

 on the ground, and only making choice of a tree when it happened to pass under 

 one, into which it rose almost vertically." It is more strictly insectivorous than 

 the true species of Titrdiis, living principally upon insects, their larvae and pupse, 

 spiders, worms, and such mollusca as are found in moist situations. In China it 

 is known to feed also on berries, especially those of the banyan ; nevertheless 

 most of its food is obtained on the ground amongst decayed vegetation, in ditches, 

 under bushes, or among the roots of trees. 



It is not known whether this species has any song ; its call-note is said to be 

 "a soft plaintive see, audible at a long distance," and when on migration it some- 

 times " utters a melodious whistling cry." 



As a cage-bird. White's Thrush would probably prove an utter failure ; 

 whether it sings or not, it can hardly be an industrious performer, moreover it 

 would probabl}- pass much of its time on the floor of its cage or aviary. 



