1919-] Birds of the Canary Islands. 295 



Webb and Berthelot mention botb forms, and under the 

 beading " Tuurdre-Mauvis — Tardus iliacus Linn.", they liave 

 the following note which, for reasons hereafter explained, 

 must surely refer primarily to the Song-Thrush {T. philo- 

 melus philomeius), Tardus musicus of Webb and Berthelot: — 

 " Obs. Le nom de Pdjaro de Africa (Oiseau d'Afrique) que 

 Ton donnc }\ cette espi'ce, de meme qu'a la precedente, 

 • indique assez qu'elle n'est que de passage aux iles Canaries. 

 En eft'et les grives arrivent en hiver, et sejournent un 

 certain temps dans les bois. Leur abondance fut remar- 

 quable en 1828, surtout dans Tile de Tenerife, oii leur 

 apparition s'est reproduite d^me maniere bien plus extra- 

 ordinaire encore en 1832. Les grives reparurent alors en 

 telle quantitc qu^on les tuait a coups de baton et a coups de 

 pierre. Le passage commenca en novembre et continua par 

 intervalles durant une partie du mois de decembre, Ellas 

 dobarquerent sur la cote orietitale, et traverserent par bandes 

 les rues de Sainte-Croix. Beaucoup se repandirent dans les 

 jardins, et le plus grand nombre gagna Pinterieur de I'ile, 



pour se refugier dans la region des Pins Ces oiseaux 



resterent trois mois dans le pays ; puis ils disparurent tout 

 <\ coup/^ 



Now, as Lord Rothschild has pointed out to me, the 

 French invariably mean a Thrush when they speak of the 

 " grive," which is the word used throughout the account 

 just quoted ; and the Redwing, on the other hand, is known 

 as mauvis. 



Whether Webb and Berthelot really intended their obser- 

 vation to refer to the Redwing or to the Thrush or to both 

 species it is rather difficult to say, but I incline with 

 Lord Rothschild to the belief that the account printed 

 above should really have been included by Webb and 

 Berthelot under the heading of their Tardus musicus, for 

 the authors certainly distinguish between tlie vernacular 

 names of the two forms. It must also be remembered that 

 the greater part of ' Ornithologie Canarienne ' was written 

 by Moquin-Tandon from notes supplied by Berthelot, and 

 this may account for the confusion. 



SER. XI. VOL. I. Y 



