TURDUS. 549 



532. TURDUS OBSCURUS Gmelin. 

 DARK THRUSH. 



Turdus obscums GMELIN, Syst. Nat. (1788), 1, pt. 2. 816; WHITEHEAD, 

 Ibis (1899), 212 (migration) ; GATES and REID, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1905), 

 4, 119; MCGREGOR and WORCESTER, Hand-List (1906), 84. 



Merula obscura SEEBOHM, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1891), 5, 273. 



Apo ( Celestino ) ; Calayan (McGregor); Guimaras (Steerc Exp.) ; Luzon 

 (Cuming, Othberg, Whitehead) ; Mindanao (Goodfelloiv) ; Negros (Whitehead) . 

 Eastern Siberia, Japan, Eastern Himalayas and Malay Peninsula; in winter to 

 China, Borneo, and Burma. 



"In the adult male the general color of the upper parts is olive- 

 brown, tinged with gray on the crown and nape ; lores very dark brown ; 

 ear-coverts slaty brown; eye-stripe white, extending nearly to the nape; 

 wings, wing-coverts, and tail brown, the outer web of each feather olive- 

 brown, grayer on the margins of the primaries and primary-coverts; 

 outside tail-feathers obscurely tipped with white on the inner web; 

 throat and cheeks slaty brown, shading into olive-brown on the breast 

 and into pale chestnut-brown on the flanks, leaving the belly white ; under 

 tail-coverts white, with basal half edged with brown; axillars and under 

 wing-coverts pale slate-gray, obscurely tipped with white; inner margin 

 of quills pale brown. Bill with upper mandible dark brown; under 

 mandible pale yellow, darker toward the tip. Wing with the third 

 primary longest, second primary between the fourth and fifth, bastard 

 primary, 15 to 13 mm. Legs, feet, and claws pale brown. Wing, 127 to 

 112; tail, 91 to 76; culmen, 22 to, 20; tarsus, 32 to 28. 



"The female differs from the male in not having the slaty tint on the 

 crown, nape, and sides of the head ; the throat is white, obscurely streaked 

 with brown, and the flanks are very slightly suffused with pale chestnut- 

 brown. In spring the general color of the upper parts has faded from 

 russet-brown into a grayer brown, which becomes still more gray during 

 summer. 



"Birds of the year do not entirely lose the marks of immaturity until 

 their second autumn molt; the wing-coverts and innermost secondaries 

 frequently retain the pale tips, though these are white rather than 

 ochraceous; the throat and eye-stripe of the female are much suffused' 

 with ochraceous, and the throat of the male resembles that of the adult 

 female. 



"Young in first plumage have most of the feathers of the upper 

 parts with pale ochraceous shafts, the feathers of the back have traces of 

 dark-brown terminal bars, and the wing-coverts and innermost second- 

 aries have pale ochraceous tips to the outside webs; on the under parts 

 the feathers of the cheeks and breast have dark-brown tips, which become 



