TURDUS ALICIA : GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH. 59 



GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH. 

 TURDUS SWAINSONI ALICIA (Bd.) Coues. 



Chars. Similar to T. swainsonij differing in lacking the yellowish 

 eye-ring and the buffy suffusion on the breast and sides of the head, 

 in being rather larger, and in having a longer and comparatively 

 slenderer bill. The average size of the bird represents about the 

 maximum dimensions of T. swainsoni. The length sometimes 

 exceeds 8.00, and the bill is rather over 0.50. 



This species or variety is common in New England 

 during the migrations, but is not, to my knowledge, 

 known to breed within our limits. So far as our in- 

 complete information enables us to judge, it is de- 

 cidedly a more northern bird than the Olive-backed 

 Thrush one whose breeding range does not reach 

 south of the Hudsonian Fauna. According to the view 

 taken by Dr. Coues, it is just this difference in the 

 breeding range which effects those distinctions in color 

 and size which have been claimed as specific, the 

 Gray-cheeked Thrushes being the larger and darker 

 northern-bred individuals of the swainsoni stock. Mr. 

 Allen has always declined to recognize the bird as in 

 any way distinct from the Olive-backed, uniting the 

 two together in his latest list of Massachusetts birds. 

 Dr. Brewer's New England list rates it as a good 

 species, with the remark : " migratory in spring and 

 fall." Mr. Minot also presents it as a species, con- 

 sidering it "a rare migrant" in New England. Ac- 

 cording to Mr. Merriam, it occurs in Connecticut with 

 the Olive-back during the migrations, being more nu- 

 merous than the latter in some parts of that State, as 

 about New Haven, and less so in other localities. 



