42 DUSKY THRUSH. 



— " I pronounce, however, first of all, that the view taken by Herr 

 von MidclendorfF quite agrees with my own, that T. Naumanni can- 

 not be allowed specific distinction, but that it is merely the young 

 of T. fuscatus or T. ruficollis. Let us now look more closely at the 

 specimens before us of T. fuscatus. A female in the first moult, 

 which was killed on the 5th. of September, 185T, in the Bareja 

 Mountains, agrees in no measure with Naumann's description, nor 

 with his two figures in vol. ii., p. 29,2; (compare pi. 68 — 2, and 

 359 — 2.) Those agree well with older specimens, and especially such 

 as are in their second moult. 



The plumage of the young female is remarkable for the almost 

 entire omission of the red-brown tints. The upper parts are brownish 

 grey, and the pointed black arrow-shaped spots on the head are 

 wanting. Only very slightly does the light bordering of the feathers 

 on the back stand out from the ground colour. The rump is an 

 exception, for here the light rusty red mixes with the grey colour 

 of the feathers on the base of the tail feathers. The blackish brown 

 markings of the breast feathers, sharply defined in older birds, are 

 only just indicated in the youthful plumage. On the half of the 

 white breast feathers, dotted with yellow, are blunt blackish triangles, 



which are somewhat larger on the feathers of the sides This 



bird, pi. 7, fig. 6, also a young female (fig. C), which was shot at the 

 same time, agrees with it even to the yellow tone of the ground- 

 colour of the under part of the throat and the less marked superciliary 

 stripe, and it also agrees excellently with Naumann's fig. 2, pi. 359, 

 with the exception of the bordering of the small wing coverts, which 

 are not white, but of a dull reddish tint. In his bird the rusty red 

 on the upper side of the wing occupies a considerable space. If you 

 compare fig. 1, pi. 358, said to be a very old Naumanni, with fig. %, 

 pi. 359, of Naumann, said to be a young male of fuscatus, there 

 certainly will be found in this respect a great similarity. At about the 

 age of two years, T. fuscatus has rusty-red borderings to the upper 

 grey wing coverts, and the hinder wing feathers mostly on the half 

 of the breadth of the outer edge, and the colouring disappears towards 

 the inside, and gradually shades into the black of the feathers. With 

 increasing age they become broader and broader, and the black 

 diminishes to a minimum at the base of the large coverts, as well 

 as on a small spot at the tip of those feathers on the inner edge. 



T. fuscatus in the second year. There are two groups of plumage. 

 The rusty red is either dim or very apparent, especially in those 

 which possess it on the under parts of the body, and those in which 

 it is absent. Six of my specimens belong to the latter, and three 



