THRUSHES. 



11 



the dealer Schobel, of Berlin, at the Berlin Aquarium, in 

 the Hamburg and the Berlin Zoological Gardens. It 

 does not appear in the ninth edition of our Zoological 

 Society's list. 



SWAINSON'S THRTTSH (Turdus sivainsoni). 

 Upper surface olive-green ; orbital region, cheeks, 

 sides of head, throat, and breast rusty yellowish ; sides 

 of neck and upper breast with dusky roundish spots ; 

 sides of body less spotted, and washed with brownish ; 

 rest of under surface white ; bill dark brown, yellowish 

 at base : eyes brown ; feet yellowish grey. Habitat, 

 North America. 



Mr. Cooper says of this species, which he calls the 

 " Olive Thrush " : " Formerly supposed to be confined 

 to Eastern North America, but of late years found 

 farther and farther to the west. This Thrush breeds in 

 the far north, more abundantly about Slave Lake, the 

 Lower Mackenzie, and the Upper Yukon Rivers. Like 

 its congeners, it is an admirable singer, enlivening the 

 woods with its melody. The nest is placed on a low 

 tree or bush, and the eggs are blue, with numerous 

 reddish spots" T.c., p. 7. 



According to Ridgway, the song resembles that of the 

 American Wood Thrush, but is not so loud, yet higher 

 and silvery in sound. 



Dr. Russ quotes as follows from Nehrling: "A con- 

 fiding pair, which I kept in a spacious aviary, chased 

 one another playfully for an hour at a time whilst they 

 uttered their long-drawn melodious call-note. The 

 hunted one hopped on the ground, stooped and kept her 

 wings in fluttering vibration ; the other stayed on the 

 perch, behaving in the same way while it eagerly 

 called " ; from which Dr. Russ concludes that both were 

 females, yet this seems not to have been the case, since 

 the account continues : " Only when one keeps it by 

 itself in a roomy cage and carefully tends it does 

 Swainson's Thrush sing fully and beautifully. In the 

 course of years I have only had two which have sung out 

 thus. One notices one thing about the song that it is 

 not suited to a small room ; resounding, full of variety, 

 it sounds extremely charming, and one can only properly 

 judge of and appreciate it when one hears it in the 

 forest." 



Dr. Russ observes : " With us it comes only singly 

 from time to time in the bird market, yet it has appeared 

 several times at the great bird shows in Berlin ; more 

 rarely it has occurred in the Zoological Gardens. 

 The Berlin Aquarium formerly had it several times. 

 Since the years 1878-79 it has only been very sparsely 

 imported by the businesses of Reiche and Ruhe. The 

 price varied considerably from 8 marks (shillings), 15 

 marks, up to 30 marks per head." 



Dr. Russ also quotes the Grey-cheeked or Alicia's 

 Thrush (Turdus alicice) as having been far more freely 

 imported than the preceding ; but he considers it would 

 save trouble to consider them together. He says that, 

 according to Baird, it is distinguished by its deeper and 

 purer green upper surface, clearly ash-grey sides of head, 

 Mid white instead of yellow orbital rings ; and, according 

 to Nehrling also, by its longer and more slender bill, 

 longer wings, and greater size. 



Neither of these Thrushes is mentioned in the ninth 

 edition of the Zoological Society's list, which is fairly 

 good evidence of their rarity in the English bird market. 



TAWNY THRUSH (Turdus fuscescens). 

 Entire upper surface rusty reddish-brown ; top of 

 head and tail faintly tinted with orange ; loral streak 

 white ; ear-coverts ash-grey ; flights and tail-feathers 

 brown, edged with rust-reddish on the outer webs ; 

 fl'ghts below white, washed with rust-reddish at the 



base ; under wing-coverts dull rust-red ; throat and 

 upper breast pale brownish yellow, the latter marked 

 with small triangular dark brownish spots ; lower 

 breast feebly spotted with grey ; rest 01 underparts 

 white, with the sides spotted with smoky olive-brown ; 

 upper mandible of bill brown; lower mandible clear 

 yellowish grey ; eyes brown ; feet yellowish grey. 

 Female slightly smaller than male, otherwise very 

 similar. Habitat, North America. This is a widely- 

 distributed species, but a shy bird inhabiting dense 

 woods. When met with it is generally singly or in 

 pairs, and even in the migratory season only in small 

 flocks. It is common in the woods of Wisconsin and 

 most numerous during the migratory season in Illinois. 

 It appears in the Northern States scarcely before the 

 middle of May, and disappears again in September. 

 Like all the other Thrushes, its food consists of insects 

 and worms, with the various berries which are to be 

 met with in the American woods, especially those of 

 the magnolia and, later, of various hollies. In the 

 middle States many of these Thrushes remain through- 

 out the winter, notably in the woods of Florida, but 

 most of them emigrate to Cuba, Panama, Guatemala, 

 and even to South America. The nest is built at the 

 beginning of June, always near water of some kind, 

 close to the ground among young shoots or in a dense 

 thorn-bush, well concealed, and so placed that it is 

 sheltered on one side. On a layer of dry foliage it is 

 constructed of small twigs, thin sprays of hemlock, 

 plant stalks, straws, fragments of yine-bark and bast 

 intermixed with moss, and the cup is lined with bents, 

 bast, and long ihairs of beasts, but with no admixture 

 of mud or rotten wood. It is a large structure, but 

 not very neat or artistic. The laying consists of from 

 four to five uniformly clear greenish-blue or emerald 

 green eggs, very rarely spotted. 



The song of this Thrush is most highly praised ; 

 indeed Russ says : " Amongst songsters more highly 

 valued than most other foreign Thrushes.'' Nuttall 

 syllables the song thus : " vihu, vihu,^ wich, wich, wichu, 

 ivichu, ivilile, wilile, wielill, wililill," and says that 

 one must be careful not to conclude that there is any 

 kind of monotony in this stanza. At times it is said 

 to utter a mewing or bleating cry. Its call-note is jihu, 

 and sharply juit, juit. According to Nehrling, the cry 

 of warning is a resounding tschiup and a penetrating 

 zup, the call-note wait. 



This bird was first brought alive to Germany in 1873, 

 when the dealer A. Schobel, of Berlin, imported it, and, 

 after that, C. Reiche, of Alfeld, introduced it into the- 

 trade on several occasions in the course of years, but 

 always singly; but it appears not to have found its- 

 way into the Zoological Gardens of London, Amster- 

 dam, or Berlin, and naturally no opportunity has been 

 given to attempt to breed it in captivity. 



FALKLAND-ISLAND THRUSH (Turdus falklandicus]. 



Head blackish, remainder of upper surface mort 

 olivaceous brown; rump and upper tail-coverts grey- 

 brown ; primaries brownish black, the outer webs with 

 narrow paler borders ; wing-coverts and secondaries 

 olivaceous brown ; all the flights below ash-grey ; under 

 wing-coverts pale brownish rust-coloured ; throat 

 whitish, with dusky longitudinal streaks ; remainder 

 of under surface clear rust-brownish, with the centre 

 of abdomen and vent brighter; under tail-coverts, 

 brownish, with whitish shaft-streaks; bill yellowish 

 horn-grey ; eyes dark brown ; feet yellowish grey. 

 The female is similar, but slightly duller in colouring. 

 The young has the underparts of a rusty-yellowish 

 fawn-colour and fawn with darker spots. Inhabits 

 southern South America. 



This rarely-imported Thrush is said to be tolerably 



