SIBERIAN GROUND-THRUSH. 205 



from the Lower Oder, from the island of Riigen, from France, Belgium, 

 Italy, and Turkey. The Siberian Ground-Thrush breeds in the valleys of 

 the Yeiiesay and the Lena, between lat. 67 and 68, and also near Yokohama 

 in Japan. It winters in China, Burma, Sumatra, and Java, and has once 

 occurred on the Andaman Islands. 



AV hen Dresser's ' Birds of Europe' was written nothing whatever was 

 known of its habits or its breeding-haunts. I am sorry that I cannot give 

 many particulars respecting these. When I was in Siberia I occasionally 

 caught a hasty glimpse of a dark-coloured Thrush with a very conspicuous 

 white eyebrow, not far from the village of Koorayika on the Arctic circle, 

 whilst the remains of the ice were still straggling down the Yenesay. It 

 was an extremely shy and wary bird ; and though I occasionally saw it 

 crossing the open ground between the birch-plantations, I did not succeed 

 in shooting one until the 19th of June. I was then walking in a dense 

 birch-plantation ; the leaves were not yet out on the trees ; and a fortnight 

 before the ground had been covered with a thick bed of snow. This had 

 melted and exposed a thick bed of leaves, the accumulation of many years. 

 As I was walking along I noticed a bird at some distance before me on the 

 ground, and presently caught sight of its white eyebrow. The bird was 

 very busy searching for food amongst the dead leaves ; and I had the good 

 fortune to secure it. It proved to be a fine male in adult plumage. I saw 

 one or two afterwards in the same locality, but was unable to get within 

 shot. I did not see it further north than the Koorayika ; but my travelling 

 companion, Mr. Boiling, assured me that he saw one in lat. 68, and I found 

 that it was well known to the inhabitants as the Chornoi Drozht, or Black 

 Thrush. They informed me that it was by no means uncommon during 

 the breeding- season at Toorokansk. Messrs. Blakiston and Pryer, in their 

 notes on the Birds of Japan (Ibis, 1878, p. 241), state that this bird is 

 possessed of a not very loud but sweet song, for which reason it is a favourite 

 cage-bird there. Nothing whatever is known of its eggs or nest. 



The male bird is dark slate-grey, with a very conspicuous white eyebrow, 

 and with the centre of the belly, the tips of the under tail-coverts, a spot at 

 the end of the outside tail-feather on each side, and the peculiar Geocichline 

 pattern on the under surface of the wing pure white. Bill black ; legs very 

 light brown ; irides dark hazel. The female differs from the male in having 

 the upper parts olive-brown, shading into dull slate-grey on the rump and 

 upper tail-coverts; eye-stripe buff, shading into white on the nape ; wings 

 and wing-coverts russet- brown ; underparts white, shading into brown on the 

 flanks, and into buff on the breast, each feather tipped with olive-brown. 

 Males of the year are suffused with brown on the head and wings, and have 

 ochraceous^fips to the greater and some of the median wing-coverts ; the 

 chin and throat are also suffused with ochraceous, and the throat and breast 

 are barred. 



