TURDUS 11 



12. KESSLER'S THRUSH. 

 TURDUS KESSLERI. 



Turdus Tcessleri, Prjev. Mong. i Strana Tangut. p. 62, pi. x. (1876) ; id. in 

 Rowley's Orn. Misc. ii. p. 198, pi. liv ; (Seebohm), Cat. B. Br. Mus. 

 v. p. 261 ; Pleske, Prjevalsky's Beisen, Vogel, ii. p. 21, Taf. v. 

 fig. 2,. (eggs). 



ad. (Kansu). Head, neck, wings, and tail blackish ; back and 

 lower breast buff; scapulars, rump, flanks, and abdomen chestnut red; 

 under wing-coverts buffy white with brown tips ; bill yellow ; legs brown. 

 Culmen TO, wing 6'0, tail 4'6, tarsus 1-4 inch. In the female the head, neck, 

 wings, and tail are sooty grey, the latter tinged with brown ; upper parts 

 brownish grey, rump washed with rusty ochreous ; abdomen and flanks 

 brighter rusty ochreous ; bill horn-coloured at the base, yellowish at the 

 tip. The nestling male ! has the crown, nape, hind-neck, and ear-coverts 

 blackish brown, the hind-neck slightly spotted with buffy white ; back and 

 scapulars ashy grey at base, then blackish with a sub-terminal buffy white 

 band ; rump paler ; upper tail-coverts blackish grey with whitish shaft- 

 stripes and tips ; under parts dull brownish yellow, irregularly banded ; 

 breast and moustache distinctly spotted ; sides of neck spotted with 

 blackish ; flanks marked with chestnut ; upper wing-coverts black, the 

 lesser broadly, the median narrowly margined with reddish yellow, the 

 former having also reddish yellow stripes ; wings and tail blackish. The 

 female nestling is much paler and the bars are finer and closer. 



Hob. Kansu, the Upper Chuanche, and southern Koko-nor 

 mountains. 



It inhabits woods both deciduous and conifer in the moun- 

 tains, bushes in the alpine districts, and juniper thickets 

 in the lower alpine region, occurring up to an altitude of 

 12,000 feet. In spring and autumn it is seldom seen in 

 pairs but in flocks of three to ten individuals. Fledged young 

 were seen in July and family parties in August. In habits it 

 resembling Turdus gouldi, and is an equally good songster ; its 

 song resembles that of the Song Thrush. Its call note resembles 

 the syllables tschok, tschok, tschok. Two nests taken by Prjevalsky 

 in the Southern Koko-nor Mountains on the 26th of May, 

 contained 8 and 4 fresh eggs, and were placed in rocks under 

 a protruding stone, one about seven and the other about four- 

 teen feet above the dry bed of a stream, and placed where 

 they were easily seen. One was built entirely of grass-bents and 

 the other of grass-bents lined with hair, and feathers of Perdix 

 sifanica. The eggs resembled those of the Fieldfare but several 

 were so closely spotted that the ground colour was scarcely 



