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TURDUS RUFICOLLIS, Pali. 



Red-throated Thrush. 



Turdus ruficollis, Pall. Reise, torn. iii. p. 694.— lb. Zoog., torn. i. p. 452. tab. 23.— Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 333. 

 — Gmel. Edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 815.— Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 219, Turdus, 

 sp. 20.— Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 273, Turdus, sp. 37— Cat. of Spec, and Draw, of Mamm. and 

 Birds presented to the Brit. Mus. by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., p. 81.— Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. 

 Soc. Calcutta, p. 141. — Hodgs. in Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., vol. xvi. p. 143. 



Red-necked Thrush, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. iii. p. 31.— Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. x. p. 278.— Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. v. 

 p. 27. 



Turdus erythrura, Hodgs. in Gray's Zool. Misc., p. 83 ? 



I have the pleasure of figuring on the accompanying Plate another of the little-known birds discovered and 

 described by Pallas. The specimens from which the drawing was taken were lent to me by Dr. Hartlaub, 

 and the other Directors of the Museum at Bremen, who had received them from St. Petersburg. I mention 

 this because some differences are found between the Russian specimens and those from the highlands of 

 northern India, the latter being of a larger size, having the rufous colouring of the throat and breast much 

 darker, approaching in fact to chestnut ; many of them also have a series of dark spots running down 

 each side of the throat, and the outer tail-feathers slightly margined with blackish brown. It has been 

 hinted by some ornithologists, and asserted by others, that the Turdus ruficollis and T. atrogularis are one 

 and the same species ; and I must say, that on examining the specimens in the British Museum, I was half 

 inclined to consider them identical myself. In the size of the bill, in the length of the wings and tail, and 

 in the colouring of the crown of the head and back, they are precisely alike ; but these points of agreement 

 are insufficient to prove that these two birds, so very oppositely coloured in every other respect, are one 

 and the same ; and Mr. Hodgson, who has had ample opportunities for observation in the Himalayas, re- 

 marks, that T ruficollis is " nearly allied to T. atrogularis, but differs in having the neck, breast, supercilium, 

 fore part of the under surface of the wing, and the tail, except at the tip, rufous." In the Bremen specimens 

 I find no trace of the streak of darker feathers on the sides of the neck, the colouring of which is much 

 lighter or of a more sandy red than in the Indian birds, and, as before stated, they are also of a smaller size. 

 The Russian specimens of T atrogularis are also smaller than individuals killed in the Himalayas, and I have 

 never seen a specimen of this latter species with any other than uniform blackish brown tail-feathers ; if I 

 had, I should have become a convert to the opinion of those who consider the two birds to constitute but a 

 single species. 



The following notes respecting this species, kindly transmitted to me by M. MiddendorfCof St. Peters- 

 burg, will be read with interest : — 



" I first met with small flocks of this bird during the second week in April, near the River Aldan in 

 south-eastern Siberia, at about 60i° north latitude. They were mingled with and passing through flocks of 

 Turdus fuscatus. About the end of April they began to couple. They frequented the densest branches 

 of the coniferous and other trees, and while perched on the tops of the lofty larches the males gave utterance 

 to sweet songs which recalled to my memory the melody of our Turdus musicus. Upon proceeding still 

 farther into the country in a south-eastern direction, I lost sight of this interesting bird, and it is to be pre- 

 sumed that it does not occur on the eastern slope of the Stanowoj range." 



Pallas states that he frequently observed it in the lofty larch-forests of Dauuria, especially in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the River " Condam," passing in vast flocks to its winter-quarters, to which hunger compelled it 

 to proceed through the snow-storms. At other times it dwells in the densest and most remote solitudes 

 of the forest. 



Head, all the upper surface and wings greyish brown ; lores, superciliary stripe and throat light chestnut ; 

 breast, abdomen and under tail-coverts white ; two central tail-feathers brown ; lateral tail-feathers rufous, 

 becoming browner towards their margins ; bill olive-yellow, passing into black at the tip ; feet flesh-colour. 



The figures are of the natural size. 





