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“It was in the month of July, in 1834, that I first heard the song of this Ouzel, which I would 
call Merula saltator, as this name preserves his distinctive sobriquet of Hopping Dick, and refers to 
his characteristic length of legs, both at the tarsus and the thighs. "The shock of an earthquake had 
wakened all the living tenants of the plantation at which I was staying, when the voice of this bird, 
as the alarm lulled into silence, was heard from a small coppice of cedar-trees, clear and mellow. 
Though it was less varied than the song of the European Blackbird, it was very much like its tones 
when it is heard over distant fields on a summer's morning. І had been apprised that I should hear 
it there, for it had sung in that grove daily at that season for three or four years; and though under 
the disadvantage of being an anticipated song, it was a very agreeable recognition of the melody of 
the European bird. 
“< The next time I heard his music was іп the month of May, 1836, in the same mountains. The 
rains of the season had terminated, or only mid-day showers fell, the mornings and evenings being 
refreshing and brilliant. It was now not a single one of these birds I heard singing lonely in a 
sequestered cluster of trees, but a hundred of them far and near, blending their voices together, or 
vying with each other in rivalry of song. Му frequent weekly journeys in these districts, from this 
period to the end of August, were always cheered by this simultaneous outburst of melody from 
the Merula saltator” 
“I found a nest of this bird опе day in the middle of August; it was affixed to the highest 
perpendicular limb of a rather tall pimento in Mount Edgecumbe, and consisted of a rude cup formed 
of the slender roots of pimento, and placed on a platform of leaves and small twigs. It contained 
two young, almost fledged, which flew to the ground before they could be seized, and one abortive 
egg. The young displayed the plumage of the adult, even to the white webs on the two coverts ; 
but the eyes were dark greyish-brown, the beak blackish, and the feet dull horny yellow. Тһе egg 
measures 1455 inch by 3% ; it is white, thickly splashed with dark and pale reddish-brown, Sometimes, 
as I have been informed, а decaying stump is selected, or any other convenient hollow, into which 
the bird carries ‘plantain trash, or similar materials, and forms a rude nest, laying three or 
four eggs. Mr. Hill gives me a statement of a locality which is intermediate between these, 
observing, “А friend of mine found the nest of а Hopping Dick. It was built amid the dry leaves 
that had lodged within the forks of a low branch of a mango-tree. It was a structure of small 
sticks, loosely woven, in the centre of which the young birds nestled among dried foliage.’ ” 
Adult. General colour above dark slate-colour, slightly browner on the hind-neck and sides of 
neck; crown of head somewhat blacker, as also the sides of the face; wing-coverts like the back, 
two of the inner greater coverts broadly margined with white for nearly the whole of their outer 
web; quills and tail brown, externally shaded with slate-colour; chin white; throat slaty-grey, 
becoming paler on the fore-neck and rest of the under surface, the centre of the throat and abdomen 
white ; under tail-coverts slaty-black, with a triangular spot of white near the end of the feather; 
under wing-coverts and axillaries slaty-grey, edged with white; quills greyish below, more ashy along 
the inner webs: * bill bright orange, blackish at tip; feet deep fulvous; iris dull orange " (P. H. 
Gosse). Total length 9 inches, culmen 1:0, wing 4:75, tail 3°75, tarsus 1:55. 
Adult female. Apparently does not differ from the male. Total length 9:2 inches, culmen 1:05, 
wing 4:4, tail 3:4, tarsus 1:45. 
The description of the male is taken from a specimen in the Seebohm Collection, and that of the 
female from Moneague in the Salvin-Godman Collection, to which it was presented by Dr. Bryant. 
The figures in the Plate are drawn from specimens in the Seebohm Collection. [R. B. 8. 
een 
