204 BRITISH BIRDS. 



GEOCICHLA SIBIRICA. 

 SIBERIAN GROUND-THRUSH. 



Tmdua sibiricus, Pall. Reis. Muss. Reichs, iii. p. 694 (1776) ; et auctorum pluri- 



morum — VieiUot, Temminch, (J^oukl, Bonaparte, Gray, Newton, Dresser, &c. 

 Turdus auroreus, Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. i. p. 448 (18:2(j, 5 )• 

 Turdus leucocillus, Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. i. p. 450 (1826, cJ ). 

 Turdus atrocyaneus, Homeyer, Isis, 1843, p. G04. 



Turdus mutabilis, Tmnm. fide Sonap. Compt. Rend, xxxviii. p. 5 (1854). 

 Cichloselys sibiricus {Pall?), Bonap. Cat. Parzud. p. 5 (1856). 

 Oreocuicla sibirica (Pall.), Jaub. et BaHh.-Lapomm. Rich. Orn. p. 202 (1859). 

 Oreocincla inframarginata, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xxix. p. 106 (1860). 

 Turdus inframarginatus (Blyth), Gray, PLand-l. B. i. p. 254 (1860). 

 Geooicbla mutabilis {Temm?), S. Midler, fjle Blyth, Ibis, 1870, p. 167. 

 Merula sibirica {Pall), Byh. Journ. Orn. 1872, p. 437. 

 Turdulus sibiricus {Pall.), Hume, Stray Feath. Ti. p. 255 (1878). 

 Geociohla sibirica {Pall), Seehohm, Cat. B. Brit. iMus. v. p. 180 (1881). 



The only claim of the Siberian Ground-Thrush to be included in the list 

 of British birds rests upon a single example which was sent to Mr. Bond 

 by a dealer who informed him that it was a variety of the Redwing that 

 had been shot between Guildford and Godalming in the winter of 1860-61. 

 The evidence is not very satisfactory. There can be no doubt that dealers 

 are under very great temptation to pass olF foreign skins as British-killed, 

 Although it is the boast of Englishmen that they are more truth- speaking 

 than any other race, it is unfortunately the fact that amongst our shop- 

 keepers and merchants there are many who do not scruple to lie for the 

 sake of gain. But although ornithologists are perfectly justified in looking 

 with suspicion upon examples of rare birds whose only authentication as 

 British-killed is the word of a dealer, there does not seem to be any 

 reasonable ground for doubt in the present case. Twenty years ago skins 

 of the Siberian Ground-Thrush were so rare in collections that it would 

 have been extremely difficult for a dealer to procure one, and the price was 

 so high that the temptation to obtain an extra profit by passing a foreign 

 skin off as British can scarcely be said to have existed. So far as is known 

 the Siberian Ground-Thrush is confined during the breeding-season to 

 Eastern Siberia; and this fact may of itself be supposed to be an argu- 

 ment against its occurrence on our shores, were it not for the circumstance 

 that the accidental appearance of Siberian birds in Europe is so common. 

 One of the most extraordinary facts connected with that most extraordinary 

 island of Heligoland is that these accidental occurrences occur almost re- 

 gularly. I am not aware that the Siberian Ground-Thrush has occurred 

 on Heligoland ; but I have lately examined a female of this species in the 

 collection of my friend Eugene von Homeyer which was shot on the 25th 

 of August 1851 at Elbing, near the Gulf of Danzig. Other occurrences in 

 Europe have been recorded, from the Hartz Mountains, from Upper Silesia, 



