PALE THRUSH. 



51 



leafy woods where there are plenty of thick shrubs and berry-beai'ing 

 trees. In their native country they also inhabit mountain forests, 

 and in summer go up tolerably high in the north of Siberia. That 

 it strays to our country singly on the passage is more than probable, 

 but it also lives nearer to us in summer than we think it does, as is 

 shown by the condition of the nesting feathers found upon them. In 

 its habits it seems to resemble most those of the Song Thrush, and the 

 male has a loud, melodious, pleasantly varied song. Its food resembles 

 that of other Thrushes. The male caught by us had only service 

 berries in its crop. Its flesh is quite as good in flavour as that of 

 other Thrushes." 



Dr. Radde, while agreeing that Nauraann's pi. 357 is a faithful 

 illustration of the true T. palletts, Pallas, is of opinion contrary to 

 that of Salvadori, that the bird is also the true Tardus ohscurus of 

 Gmelin. I collate the following from his work (op. cit.): — 



"I had twenty-eight specimens of this Thrush, and from them I 

 gather the following facts. 



"In general neither the white spots on the end of the outer tail 

 feathers, nor the faintly marked white spots on the wings, nor the 

 distribution of the grey and white colours of the head are uniformly 

 constant. It is much more common to find the following variations: — 

 1. Outer tail feathers without white markings. 2. An oblique band 

 on the two outer tail feathers, which sometimes disap]3ears higher up, 

 about half a line broad, which is continued over the outer edge. 

 3. In one old male the third tail feather also had a white inner 

 border. These difierences are not sexual. 4. The individuals without 

 these bands are more in number than those who have them. The 

 yellow of the sides and breast becomes in advancing age clearer and 

 more intense, especially in males. There is some difference in this 

 between the Siberian and Japanese specimens. In Japan birds the 

 grey tints are clearer and deeper, especially on the breast. It is 

 rare to find in the Siberian bird the grey of the sides of the neck 

 evenly distributed; in most individuals the throat is white, and then 

 those grey shaft spots appear in the side which are shown in Nau- 

 mann's plate 3o7. 



Male. Female. 



Total length 7.5 to 71 inches. 7.3 to 7.5 inches. 



Wings 4.5 to 4.6 " 4.2 to 4.6 " 



Tail 3 " 3 " 



Tarsus 1.2 to 1.1 " 1.1 to 1.2 " 



Some of the birds were killed in the middle of May, on their 



