TURDUS GOULDI, J. Verr. 



Gould's Thrush. 



Merula Gouldii, J. Verr. Nouv. Arctriv. du Mus., torn, vi., Bull. p. 34, & torn, vii., Bull. p. 32. — David, ibid., 

 torn, vii., Bull. p. 6. 



The French savant, M. Jules Verreaux, having named this Thrush after myself, I should be wanting in 

 courtesy were I not to acknowledge that I duly appreciate the compliment he thereby intended to convey, 

 although the bird is an inhabitant of some of the distant provinces of Thibet, a country too far off for me 

 ever to see, and where my name will probably never be heard. 



It is difficult to distinguish generically the differences between the genera Tardus and Merula. Structurally 

 the Thrush and the Blackbird are very much alike ; yet, to say nothing of the differences in the colouring of 

 the sexes of the latter, how different are they in their plumage, their habits, and their economies ! Ulti- 

 mately, I have no doubt, ornithologists will deem it necessary to give more definite characters to each of 

 those genera than have yet been assigned to them, and will in all probability separate the other members 

 of the family still further than at present. This Thibetan bird and several allied species will then hold an 

 intermediate station between Tardus and Merula. To me the bird is certainly not a true Merula ; neither 

 do I consider it to be so closely allied to the M. castanea of the Himalayas as, it will be seen, M, Verreaux 

 is inclined to believe. 



The Turdus Gouldi is another of the many interesting discoveries made by the Abbe Armand David ; and 

 all that is known respecting it is embodied in the following extract from the seventh volume of the * Nouvelles 

 Archives du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris,' which I have taken the liberty of transcribing. The 

 description and remarks are by M. Jules Verreaux. 



" Head and neck a dark earth-brown, paler from the chin to the upper part of the chest ; the whole of 

 the body chestnut-red, somewhat darker on the under surface ; wings and tail black ; under tail-coverts black, 

 with white centres and tips ; irides brown ; beak yellow. 



"The female differs in the head being tinted with grey, which becomes lighter on the neck; the red of 

 the body is also lighter ; and the black of the wings and tail is not only paler but tinged with red ; it is the 

 same with the under tail-coverts, where the white of the tips and edges of each feather is strongly 

 tinted with red. 



"Three examples— namely, a male, an adult female, and an immature female — were killed at Moupin on 

 the 24th of June, 11th of March, and the 1st of November, 1869. 



" The difference which exists between this species and the Merula castanea of Gould, from the continent 

 of India, is recognizable at a single glance, if it be only by the pale grey head and white neck shown in the 

 drawing of that author in his. 6 Birds of Asia/ We are happy, then, to give the name of our clever colleague 

 to a species which offers so great an analogy with that which he was the first to describe, and which several 

 modern authors have placed in the genus Geocichh, but according to Mr. Jerdon (whom we have 

 recently seen, and whom all the world looks upon as the highest authority of our times in all matters 

 relating to Indian ornithology) is not a true Merula in its manners. The Abbe David, who discovered this 

 beautiful species in the forests of the large mountains of Moupin and other Thibetan principalities, tells us 

 that its habits and voice are precisely similar to those of the true Thrush, but that its ordinary cry is weaker 

 and more shrill than that of the Blackbird ; it frequents the most solitary woods, where it is not rare, and 

 whence the cold causes it to descend into the valleys in great numbers, especially at the commencement 

 of winter." 



The accompanying Plate represents, of the size of life, a male specimen kindly lent to me by Mr. Elliot. 



