udin S 
қ р эз, а а іш. E: "— 
192 
British Birds, but Mr. Howard Saunders duly mentions it in his second edition of the ‘Manual’ 
(p. 9). The specimen is іп the Museum at Perth, not “ Edinburgh " as Mr. Harting has it (Handb, 
Brit. B. 1901, p. 347). 
Seebohm gives a further note on Merula atrigularis in his ‘History of British Birds’ 
(i. p. 249) :—“I met with it twice in the valley of the Yenesay on my return journey from the 
Arctic regions, between latitudes 60° and 63°, early in August; I found it a very noisy and active 
bird. I was too late for eggs; but the not fully fledged young, three of which I secured, were a 
source of great anxiety to their parents, whose alarm-notes resounded on the skirts of the forest on 
every side. They principally frequented the neighbourhood of the villages on the banks of the river, 
where the forest had been cut down for firewood, and clumps of small trees were scattered over the 
rough pastures where the cattle of the peasants are turned out to graze in summer. They showed 
a marked preference for the pines, and were very wary. The males kept out of gunshot; and I only 
obtained one adult, a female.” 
Mr. H. L. Popham, in his account of the birds observed on the Yenisei River (Ibis, 1898, 
p. 494), writes:—“ Тһе Black-throated 'Thrush appears to frequent the pine-forest only, and 
does not seem to be very gregarious in breeding-habits, for, although several pairs were nesting in 
the same locality, they were not by any means in colonies, like the Fieldfares. I obtained my first 
specimen at Yeniseisk, but did not meet with this Thrush again until we came to Inbatskaya, where 
I took five nests, each containing six eggs, which varied considerably. Two clutches have the 
markings of the Mistle-Thrush, but the ground-colour is a deeper blue; other clutches are very 
much of the type of the Blackbird, and in one of these latter a single egg has the markings of the 
< Mistle-Thrush ’ type. The nests, composed of dry grass with a lining of mud and an inner lining of 
broad dry grass, were all placed in small fir-trees close to the stem (except one, which was on the top 
of a stump) at heights varying between three feet and six feet. In all cases both the parent birds 
flew uneasily from tree to tree round the nest, constantly uttering their alarm-note, * chit, chit, chéet. 
When singing, the male whistles a few notes at a time, somewhat like a Song-Thrush, with considerable 
variation, but does not repeat the same phrase two or three times over as the latter does. The 
Black-throated Thrush appears to be extremely local in the Valley of the Yenisei. The eggs measure 
from 1:08 in. to 1:15 in. long by from ^77 in. to "84 in. broad." 
Specimens from Tomsk are in the Milan Museum (Martorelli, Ornis, 1901, p. 264), and 
Seebohm believed that the species would be * found on the Ob River in similar latitudes to those it 
inhabited on the Yenisei, and in a similar climate in the pine-regions of the Himalayas and 
Eastern Turkestan. It winters in Western Turkestan, Baluchistan, and North India, occurring on 
migration as far eastwards as Lake Daikal, and in winter as far as Assam. 
* Severtzow says that it breeds in Eastern Turkestan in the cultivated districts, gardens, grassy 
steppes, and salt plains, up to 4000 feet above the level of the sea ; and there cannot be much doubt 
that it breeds also at a considerable elevation in the pine-regions of the lofty Himalayas." 
With regard to the latter statement, I may remark that specimens from Native Sikhim were 
obtained by the late Mr. Mandelli in the fullest breeding-plumage, but no eggs have ever been 
known to be taken in these mountains, and the bulk of the individuals doubtless go further north 
to breed. 
Dr. Otto Finsch, during his travels in Siberia and Central Asia, found the Black-throated 
Ouzel on the Arcad Mountains in May. Неге it was nesting on the steppe, as the whole region 
was destitute of trees. It was met with on the 7th of June at the Marakal Lake, and also at 
Obdorsk, where Count Zeil obtained a young moulting bird on the 19th of August (Ibis, 1877, 
p. 90). 
