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bird of passage. Swinhoe records it as occurring from Pekin to Amoy and in Formosa (P. 7, $, 
1871, p. 567). In the Lower Yangtze Valley it is a common winter visitant, according to 
Mr. Styan (Ibis, 1891, p. 332), arriving in November and leaving about the middle of April. 
Mr. La Touche found it wintering near Foochow, and extremely common during March and 
April (Styan, Ibis, 1887, p. 216). He has also seen it at Swatow in March (Ibis, 1892, p. 419). 
Mr. Rickett has procured specimens near Foochow and it has been sent from Kuatun in 
N.W. Fohkien to Mr. La Touche (Ibis, 1899, p. 177). 
Swinhoe met with the present species in Formosa, and Mr. La Touche records it as а common 
species in winter in the northern part of the island, remaining as late as the 15th of April. 
Mr. Styan says that in the Yangtze Valley it is a solitary bird in winter. It frequents 
gardens, orchards, and bamboo-clumps round the villages, much resembling the Blackbird 
(M. merula) in its habits, and also in its single alarm-note when disturbed. 
The nest, according to Taczanowski, is made of dry stems of different kinds of grasses, 
especially those of a species of Gallium, mingled with a small number of dry leaves of trees 
and having a mixture of mud; the upper edge is composed of dry rootlets of Vaccinium, mixed 
with a certain number of pine-needles and moss. ‘The interior is abundantly lined with very 
delicate grasses, with a small number of larger stems. The outside diameter is about 4:6 inches 
and the height about 3:5; the diameter of the interior 5:2 inches, with a depth of 1.6. 
Eggs from the mouth of the Ussuri are similar to those of JM. obscura, according to the 
same naturalist, with fine spotting. The ground-colour is pale greenish-blue, with spots of 
a brownish brick-red colour; they are somewhat pale, and very small on two of the specimens, 
irregular in number, and equally distributed over the whole surface, many being elongated 
into streaks and mixed with paler and equally small spots. On the third egg the superficial 
marks were much larger and less plentiful, the underlying ones large and less numerous: 
this egg resembled the more common variety of the above-named Ouzel. These eggs were 
more oblong and of a slendcrer form than those of M. obscura. Dimensions: 1:15 х0:8,1:25хХ0:%92, 
13x0°8. 
Adult male. General colour above olive-brown, the wing-coverts like the back, but the 
greater series grey at the extreme tips; bastard-wing feathers, primary-coverts, and quills dark 
sepia-brown, externally grey, fringed with white on the edges; the secondaries externally brown 
like the back; upper tail-coverts like the back, but the longer ones inclining to grey in the 
centre; tail-feathers dark sepia-brown, washed with grey externally, the three outer feathers 
with a spot of white at the tip of the inner web, increasing in extent towards the outermost, 
the white reaching the tip of the outer web also; crown of head to the nape, sides of face, 
and throat dark slaty-grey, more dusky on the lores and оп the ear-coverts; a spot at the 
base of the cheeks and the chin white; the lower throat, fore-neck, and sides of body light 
brown with more or less of a pinkish tinge, the lower flanks darker brown; thighs ashy ; 
centre of body from the chest to the under tail-coverts pure white, the latter with broad 
olive-brown margins; under wing-coverts and axillaries grey, with obsolete whitish margins 
and tips: “ЫП brown, with the lower mandible yellowish-white nearly to the tip; feet pale 
brownish ; iris brown” (Godlewski). Total length 8:5 inches, culmen 0:8, wing 5:0, tail 3°5, 
tarsus 1'2. 
Adult female. Differs from the male in wanting the grey crown, the head being of the 
same colour as the back; the ear-coverts brown, with dull whitish shaft-lines ; ‘the throat white, 
with dusky-brown streaks on the sides; the fore-neck and sides of body brown, without any 
of the pink shade apparent in the male, ‘Total length 8:5 inches, wing 4°89. 
