THRUSHES. 



13 



qualities of bird-music, plaintiveness, and joyousness, in 

 some indefinable manner. 



" I have never heard this species sing in a 

 cage or anywhere near a human habitation ; and 

 it is probably owing to its recluse habits that its 

 excellent song has not been hitherto noticed. Azara 

 perhaps mistook the song of this species for that of 

 Turdus rufiventrisa, very inferior vocalist. 



" The nest is made in the centre of a thick bush or 

 tree 6ft. or 8ft. above the ground, and is a deep, 

 elaborate structure, plastered inside with mud, and 

 lined with soft, dry grass. The eggs are four in number, 

 oblong, the ground-colour light blue, abundantly marked 

 with reddish-brown spots." 



Dr. Russ says that as this, " like unhappily all the 

 Thrushes, is only imported seldom and singly, or at best 

 in pairs, I was very eager to be able to thoroughly 

 observe the pair in my possession." It would seem, 

 however, that he is not speaking in his own person, for 

 he continues (Mr. Frank has written the following) : 

 " The birds were quite tame with me, and to all appear- 

 ance thoroughly healthy, so that I hoped they would 

 soon proceed to breed. They had a perfect propensity 

 for bathing and also liked their food moist ; they 

 carried quantities of it to their drinking-water in 

 order to wet it. I received them under the name of 

 Brazilian Mock-Thrushes, but they did not appear to 

 deserve this title, as the song of the male was insig- 

 nificant, and, so far as I could ascertain, it never made 

 any attempt to copy the song of other birds. The male 

 s-ang fairly freely, and the song, though both soft and 

 incapable of being highly esteemed, was yet pleasing. 

 Unfortunately the female of my pair soon 'died, so that 

 I was successful in recording no attempt at breeding." 



Dr. Russ furthermore says that Mrs. Albrecht, who 

 kept a male for a long time, did not think much of its 

 song, but considered it quite poor, and Dr. Russ him- 

 elf came to the same conclusion. Now, although I 

 have elsewhere pointed out that Mr. Hudson often 

 speaks in the highest praise of the songs, even of such 

 birds as the Grey Cardinals, it must in fairness be 

 borne in mind that, in the present instance, he himself 

 says that he has never heard it sing in a cage or near 

 human habitations, so that perhaps it never sings 

 properly in captivity. It has been represented in our 

 Gardens. 



WHITE-BELLIED THRUSH (Turdus alUventris}. 



In aspect and character it resembles the White- 

 throated Thrush, but differs as follows : The brighter 

 colour of the head and nape, the longer tail, coloured 

 like the rest of the upperside, the weaker, less distinct 

 streaks by the under-mandible and the throat, the 

 absence of a pure white unstreaked throat-patch, the 

 deep rust-red on the under wing-coverts. Its chief 

 colouring is grey, washed with olivaceous brown on back 

 and wings, the throat is streaked white, and the abdo- 

 men whitish grey ; the under wing-coverts are reddish 

 yellow, so that the bird, if it lifts its wings, produces 

 rather a startling effect ; the large eyes are of a brilliant 

 deep brown. I take this description from Russ. 

 Habitat, South America. 



This Thrush seems to have a wide distribution ; 

 according to Burmeister it occurs over the primeval 

 forest region of the northern coast tracts of Brazil, at 

 Bahia, Para, and Guiana ; and von Berlepsch records 

 it also from New Granada. It lives in the low scrub 

 of young saplings, as also in the thickets on the steppes. 

 Mangelsdorff says that they nest upon the heights near 

 the mountain borough of New Freiburg. He thus 

 describes the song as he heard it uttered by the wild 



bird: "The song is horribly bungling, a chopped-up 

 chirping, properly hardly to be called a song, although 

 it is perfectly recognisable as of the Thrush character." 

 Most Thrush-lovers will regard this as a cruel libel 

 upon their favourites, but I can well imagine that a 

 loud-voiced House Sparrow trying to sing like our Song 

 Thrush might irritate a musical person. We forgive 

 the staccato repetitions of our native friend, because 

 his notes are clear and joyous, but if they were nothing 

 better than a disjointed chirping I doubt if we shoukl 

 do so. 



Mr. C. von Schlechtendal, who received a specimen 

 of this bird from Miss Hagenbeck, describes the song 

 a/5 " till, tui, diliih, diliih, diliih " ; hardly what I 

 should have characterised as a disjointed chirping, but 

 not unlike the early conversations of Sparrows, if we 

 convert it into its English equivalents thus tewi, tewi f 

 delee, dclee, delee (usually written telee, I think). 

 Schlechtendal says that, although far inferior to that 

 of our Song Thrush, he wa^ able to endure the song, 

 because the bird was confiding towards himself ; no 

 doubt one does forgive a good deal to a friendly pet. 

 This bird also has been seen in our Zoological Gardens ; 

 it is a rarely imported bird, and very little seems to 

 be known about its wild life. Burmeister says nothing 

 about the nest or eggs. 



SORRY THRUSH (Turdus tristis}. 



The whole upper surface is clear olive-brown, the 

 head and tail washed with bluish ash, the brown 

 throat-streaks less distinct than in T. leucomelas, and 

 less close and numerous ; breast and sides of abdomen 

 clear bright yellowish brown, as also the under man- 

 dible, which is also shorter, as the wings and tail are 

 longer than in the aforementioned species. Habitat, 

 Mexico, Honduras, etc. I have been unable to obtains 

 any information about this species beyond the fact 

 that it has been represented in the living collection 

 of our London Zoological Society. It is, of course, 

 probable that its wild life would not differ greatly 

 from that of T. leucomelas, and that both nest and 

 eggs would be of a similar character. 



From his remarks I should judge that Dr. Russ never 

 possessed T. tristis, and was not acquainted with any- 

 body who had. 



GRAY'S THRUSH (Turdus, Grayi). 



Entire upper surface dull olivaceous brown, flighte 

 dark brown, the outer webs with pale borders, broader 

 borders of inner webs faint reddish yellow ; below ash- 

 grey, the inner webs broadly bordered with fawn- 

 yellow, large and small under wing-coverts dull orange- 

 yellow ; tail feathers blackish brown, indistinctly 

 marked with dark and light bars ; breast clear fawn- 

 brownish, abdomen, sides and under tail-coverts clear 

 brownish yellow ; bill greenish grey, the tomium and 

 tip lighter (in winter entirely grey with the exception 

 of a yellowish tip) ; eyes brown with yellowish orbital 

 ring ; feet greenish horn-grey. The female is perhaps 

 slightly duller and smaller. Habitat, Central America 

 to Colombia. 



According to Dr. Frantzius this is one of the most 

 abundant and widely distributed of the Costa Rican 

 Thrushes. " I met it both near the seashore and at a 

 height of 6,000 ft. During the dry season one seldom 

 sees it, but in March, shortly before the commencement 

 of the rainy season, one hears its characteristic Thrush 

 note in the hedges ; with the beginning of the rainy 

 season, however, when the breeding-time arrives, its 

 monotonous song, which one recognises from early morn- 

 ing to late in the evening above every other wild 

 thing, becomes irritating in the extreme. The Costa 



