Letters, Extracts, Notices, b;c. 579 



from P. 7'ufus. I therefore propose the name Phylloscopus 

 newtoni, after Professor Alfred Newton, for the Indian bird. 



Yours &c., 



H. Gatke. 



Segp;ieclen, 



August 31, 1889. 



Sir, — It may be interesting to the Members of the 

 B. O. U. to mention that by a mere chance a short time 

 ago I heard of a Thrush with a black throat having been 

 shot several years since in the vicinity of Perth, and that 

 suspecting from the description that it might turn out 

 to be Tardus atrigularis of Temminck, I made immediate 

 inquiries, and ultimately obtained a sight of the bird, which 

 proved to be, as I had suspected, the true Black-throated 

 Thrush of Siberia [Turdus atrigularis^. It was shot near the 

 side of the Tay, a little below Perth, in the very severe winter 

 of 1878-1879, in the month of February, by Mr. Robert 

 Gloag, and was in company with another bird of the same 

 species on a spit of waste ground thickly interspersed with 

 thistles, docks, and wild sorrel, on the seeds of which they 

 seemed to be feeding. There was a thaw at the time, after a 

 lengthened snow-storm, and Mr. Gloag being out with his 

 gun, and having some knowledge of birds, was attracted by 

 their noisy call-notes, which were strange to him. He 

 therefore fired and secured one of the birds ; the other flew 

 across the Tay, over Moncreiffe Island, into the woods below 

 the Kinnoull Cliff's, and was not seen again. Fortunately the 

 bird was preserved and was given by Mr. Gloag to his 

 brother, Mr. John Gloag, in whose possession it has been 

 for many years, and who, notwithstanding the rarity of the 

 bird, kindly presented it to the Perthshire Society of Natural 

 Science for their Local Museum at Perth, in which it is now 

 placed. The bird is about the size of the Redwing and, as 

 far as one can judge, about 6g inches in length. The whole 

 of the upper parts are olive-brown, darkest on the head, each 

 feather being margined with a lighter shade. Throat and 

 breast dark brownish black, each feather lighter on the 



