DWARF THRUSH. 201 



Bill greyish-black ; superciliary membrane scarlet ; claws greyish- 

 yellow, dusky toward the base. The plumage is entirely pure white. 



Length to end of tail 12 inches ; bill along the ridge ^^, along the 

 edge of lower mandible r| ; wing from flexm-e 6^ ; tail 4 ; tarsus 1^^ ; 

 middle toe and claw l^'^^. 



Dr Richardson's description of the summer plumage is as follows : 

 " A summer specimen (lat. 54°). Head and neck shortly barred 

 with blackish-brown and pale wood-brown or brownish-white ; the front 

 of the neck paler. Dorsal plumage, tail-coverts, scapulars, tertiaries, 

 and the posterior lesser coverts, blackish-brown, cut about half-way to 

 the shafts by rather coarse ochraceous bars, intermixed with nearly an 

 equal number of feathers, ochraceous throughout and thickly undulated 

 with fine black lines. The breast, belly, and flanks are mostly pale 

 ochre, broadly blotched and barred with blackish-brown, intermixed on 

 the belly with some white feathers, and on the breast with a few of the 

 finely undulated ones. The vent, legs, tail (which is only partially 

 grown), the outer border of the wing, primaries, secondaries, and 

 greater coverts, are white. The toes partially naked, not pectmated ; 

 the nails short and much worn." 



DWARF THRUSH. 



T URDUS Nanus. 



PLATE CCCCXIX. Male. 



The history of our smaller Thrushes has been involved in obscu- 

 rity by the attempts which have been made to restore to some of those 

 described by Wilson the names supposed to have been bestowed on 

 them by European writers, and by changing the names given by Wil- 

 son to such as could not satisfactorily be referred to previous writers. 

 The difficulties that present themselves when we attempt to recognise 

 species ill figured and slightly described, are very great, and I have 

 often thought that too little credit had been given to Wilson with re- 

 spect to the smaller Thrushes which he has described, and which no 



