MERULA ALPESTRIS, Brehm. 
ALPINE RING-OUZEL. 
Sylvia torquata, pt., Savi, Orn. Tosc. i. p. 206 (1827). 
Merula alpestris, C. L. Brehm, Isis, 1828, p. 1281; id. Убе. Deutschl р. 377 (1831); Stejn. 
Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. ix. pp. 365-373 (1886) ; Seebohm, Ibis, 1889, p. 309 ; Salvad. Boll. Mus. 
7 nol. Tr ت‎ 3 (С Су © \ 
The plate of Merula alpestris (Pl. LXXXV.) will appear 
in a succeeding Part. 
—— ng E" палалі 
that twenty-five years ago no ornithologist in this country treated the manifold species of the old 
Pastor with the consideration which some of them apparently deserve, and the following strictures of 
Dr. Stejneger are certainly in the present instance well merited :—“ It has been the unfortunate 
fashion to sneer at the species and subspecies of Brehm, and the simple fact that a name was 
established by him has been sufficient reason to ignore it altogether and to put it into the synonymy 
without investigation. "This is not only injustice to Brehm's honest labour and his extreme power of 
discrimination, but it has resulted in extreme injury to science. In the present case, for instance, 
I think I am in a position to prove that Brehm was correct, and that there exist two distinct species 
of Ring-Thrushes in Europe, notwithstanding the fact that hardly a single European ornithologist of 
the present generation even dreams of it." 
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