MERULA INTERMEDIA, Richmond. 
CENTRAL-ASIAN BLACKBIRD. 
Turdus merula (nec L.), Severtz. Turkest. Jevotn. p. 64 (1873). 
Merula vulgaris (nec Selby), Scully, Str. F. iv. p. 189 (1876). 
Merula merula (nec L.), Sharpe, Trans. Linn. Soc. (2) Zool. v. part 8, p. 72 (1889). 
Merula maxima (nec Seebohm), C. Swinhoe, Ibis, 1882, p. 105; Pleske, Wiss. Result. Przew. 
Reis. ii. p. 17 (1889) ; Sharpe, Sci. Results 2nd Yarkand Miss., Aves, p. 91 (1891). 
Merula merula maxima (nec Seebohm), Stolzm. Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou, 1892, p. 402, 1897, p. 74. 
Merula merula intermedia, Richmond, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xviii. p. 585 (1895). 
M. similis M. merule, sed рал ПӘ major, et feeminá magis grisescente distinguenda. 
Tug Blackbird of Central Asia has been admitted of late years to be somewhat different from the 
common M. merula of Europe, but most writers, myself included, have naturally supposed that it was 
identical with the Kashmir Blackbird. Mr. C. W. Richmond has, however, recently thrown a new 
light on the subject, owing to the rediscovery, by that excellent naturalist Dr. W. L. Abbott, of the 
adult М. maxima in the mountains of Central Kashmir. The two specimens of M. maxima obtained 
by Dr. Abbott so much exceed in their dimensions the Blackbirds of Central Asia, that Mr. Richmond 
has separated the latter under the name of Merula merula intermedia. 
Beyond its larger size, the male of the Central-Asian Blackbird presents no difference from 
the male of the Common Blackbird of Europe, but the female is usually a greyer bird, and on 
that account I should at once have been willing to recognize M. intermedia, but for the fact that 
Blackbirds having larger dimensions and grey females are found in other parts of the Western 
Palearctic Region, and in the same localities with these grey-plumaged females occur specimens 
which cannot be separated from the hen Blackbirds of other parts of Europe. 
In the British Museum the examples of M. intermedia tend to confirm Mr. Richmond's 
characters for the Eastern race of M. merula, and he is probably quite correct in his surmise that 
M. maxima of Kashmir will be found to be a distinct resident form peculiar to the higher regions of 
the last-named country. 
The definition of the exact habitat of M. intermedia, however, is not so easy, for, as 1 have 
pointed out in my article on M. merula, grey females are found in North-eastern Africa and 
Palestine, and the Blackbirds of Eastern Europe are larger, as a rule, than those of the Western part 
of the Continent. Itis therefore quite clear that the question of the races of M. merula is not 
yet settled. 
Meanwhile I must recognize Mr. Richmond's name of M. interm 
Blackbird. Its only known breeding-place is apparently in Turkestan (vide infra). Dr. Scully 
found the species in Western Turkestan in winter and states that it migrated to the northward in 
Dr. Abbott's specimens were obtained in the Thian-Shan Mountains in November, and 
nd November in the 
edia for the Central-Asian 
spring. 
the Seebohm Collection contains examples procured by Przewalski in October a 
'Thian-Shan range and at Aksu, the locality whence came Dr. Abbott's type. 
According to Dr. Pleske (Wiss. Result. Przew. Reis. ii. p. 17), Przewalski obtained the species 
first on his journey to Lob-nor during the first half of September 1876, in the upper reaches of the 
