The Zoologist— July, 1874. 4053 



our European countries and which come from Japan ; nevertheless 

 it must be admitted that among numerous Indian specimens I have 

 found individuals with beaks neither longer nor thicker than those 

 of the Japanese specimens. I have therefore reunited them, con- 

 trary to the judgment of Mr. Gould, who considers them distinct, 

 and who is even inclined to make a third species of the Australian 

 specimens. * * * *• This bird accidentally visits western 

 Europe; we may cite five or six instances, one in England 

 [increased above to nine or ten], two at Hamburg, one on the 

 Rhine, another in Germany (the exact locality not being mentioned), 

 and as long ago as 1783 a specimen was killed at Metz ; besides 

 these we hear vaguely of other captures. It is abundant in Japan, 

 and perhaps also in some parts of Asia, whence it has probably 

 visited Europe. I have been quite unable to discover any difference 

 between the colour of the plumage in the Hamburg specimens and 

 those from Japan. I only perceive a very slight difference in the 

 form and size of the beak between these last and those from Java; 

 again, comparing these with those from the Australian colonies, 

 the latter are the larger, although I find no difference in the 

 plumage." Temminck adds that its food consists of insects and 

 worms, and that in Java it frequents hills six or seven thousand 

 feet in height and equally high hills in Japan. (See 'Manuel 

 d'Ornithologie,' vol. iv. pp. 602—604.) 



Turning to a recently published part (iv.) of Yarrell's 'British 

 Birds,' I find the following additional particulars of its geographical 

 range. It has been killed about twenty times in Continental 

 Europe; at Dion le Monte, in October, 1842; at Namur, and at 

 Jemappes and Louvaine, in October, 18.55 ; in the woods at Rezon- 

 ville, in September, 1788; this specimen was described by Hol- 

 landre, under the name of Turdus aureus, in 1825; near Marseilles, 

 in October, 1840; in the Tyrol, in 1861 ; at Aspang, in Austria, in 

 1847; in Heligoland, in September, 1834; near Hamburg; at 

 Elbing, in Prussia, in 1849; and at Jemtland, one of the Swedish 

 provinces, in 1837. 



It has occurred at Krasnojark, on the Jenisei, also on the shores 

 of Lake Baikal ; and Ilerr Radde, the Siberian traveller, shot three 

 specimens on the Tarei moor; these were two males and a female, 

 and were apparently making their way northwards in the spring of 

 the year. — Newtoii's ' Yarrell,'' i. 254. 



From these various records it seems that October has been the 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. IX. 2 K 



