214 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
This interesting bird, to which my attention was first called by Mr. Walter 
Faxon, is an exceptionally brown, richly-colored specimen of the form which 
Mr. Osgood has called verecunda.1 Although in full winter plumage, it retains 
on its wing coverts several of those rusty, tear-shaped spots which are invariably 
characteristic of the juvenal plumage of most Hylocichlae, and which also 
frequently reappear in their first winter plumages. On comparing this speci- 
men with the life-size figure of Turdus minor in the elephant folio edition 
of Audubon’s immortal work,? Mr. Faxon and I find that the two correspond 
satisfactorily in respect to their general coloring (that of the figure is some- 
what browner, however, than that of the skin) and so very minutely in the 
measurements of the various parts as to leave no doubt in our minds that the 
bird here considered was that from which Audubon’s figure of 7. minor was 
drawn. It was probably taken by Dr. Townsend soon after his arrival at the 
Columbia River, in the autumn of 1834, and should not be confounded with 
the “female specimen of a Thrush ” procured ‘on the Columbia River on the 
19th June 1838,” by Dr. Townsend, and said by Audubon ‘ to differ in no other 
respect from specimens of Turdus Wilsonzi than in having some of the spots on 
the sides of the neck and the breast of a darker brown.” 8 The latter measured 
“seven inches two and a half twelfths in length,’ and was probably au Oregon 
Thrush (Hylocichla ustulata). 
Turdus nanus was afterwards based by Audubon ‘ partly on his plate of T. 
manor, but also on a detailed description which closely fits the Columbia River 
specimen now in the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy, even the tear-shaped 
spots being mentioned in the following terms : “Secondary coverts tipped with 
yellowish-red, which on some of the inner runs a little way along the shaft.” 
Some of the measurements given in connection with this description do not, 
however, agree with those of the Townsend skin. Very possibly they were 
taken by Audubon from his note-book and originally from a fresh specimen of 
a small eastern bird. 
These facts have convinced both Mr. Faxon and me that the specimen just 
considered may be safely regarded as the actual type of Turdus nanus. If we 
are correct in so thinking, this name, as I have already indicated, must neces- 
sarily take the place of verecunda, provided the separation proposed by Mr. 
Osgood be adopted. 
All of the four small Hermit Thrushes collected in the Cape Region by Mr. 
Frazar are apparently referable to nana, although one of them (No. 14,527, 9, 
Triunfo, December 5, 1887) is somewhat too gray to be typical of that form, 
and perhaps is intermediate between it and true guttata. Another, killed on 
the Sierra de la Laguna on April 27, is in such worn and faded plumage as to 
suggest that it may have been breeding. 
1 T have directly compared it with Mr. Osgood’s series of breeding specimens 
(including the type) of this form from the Queen Charlotte Islands. 
2 Birds Amer., pl. 419, fig. 1. 
8 Orn. Biog. V. 1849, 203, 204. 
4 Loc. cit., 204-206. 
