22 BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 



treeless plains bordering the H umber, and numerous 

 there for a few weeks in the autumn, when large 

 migratory flocks come from the north, arriving on 

 the east coast from about the middle of September 

 to early in October. They are at this season found 

 distributed throughout the turnip-fields, often in 

 large numbers. 



I think it not improbable we have two races 

 or varieties of the common Thrush the one our 

 familiar garden friend, the other a dark race or 

 variety, which comes only in the autumn. Along 

 with the common Thrushes, which at that season are 

 so frequent in our east-coast turnip-fields, I have 

 often noticed many very dark birds, looking, when 

 they first fly up, nearly as dusky as hen Blackbirds ; 

 they are certainly darker than any of our resident 

 Thrushes, with the underparts a richer and deeper 

 yellow-buff, and the pectoral spots more prononcees *. 

 Early on the morning of the 8th of December, 1871, 

 I put up a score of these dark Thrushes from amongst 

 some dry grass on a drain-bank close to the coast, 

 and very far from either trees or bushes ; they were 



* Mr. R. Gray, in his < Birds of the West of Scotland/ 

 p. 75, says, "In August and September of this year (1868) I 

 observed numbers of Thrushes in North Uist taking shelter in 

 dry stone dykes, and hopping from one crevice to another like 

 disconsolate Wrens. I remarked particularly the unusually 

 dark colour of their plumage, the birds being very unlike those 

 brought up in cultivated districts, where gardens, trees, and 

 hedgerows attract this familiar songster and its allies." 



