GEOCICH LA DAVISONI (Hume) 
DAVISON'S GROUND-THRUSH. 
Turdus sibiricus (пес Gm.), Temm. Man. d'Orn. iii. p. 98 (1835); id. € Schlegel, Faun. Jap., 
Aves, p. 60, pl. xxxi. (1847). 
Turdulus davisoni, Hume, Stray Feathers, v. p. 63 (1877). 
Turdulus sibiricus (nec Gm.), Hume, Stray Feathers, у. p. 136 (1877). 
Turdus, sp. incogn., Blakiston & Pryer, Ibis, 1878, p. 241. 
G. similis G. sibirice, sed saturatior, abdomine pectori concolore, minim? albo, distinguenda. 
Тнк Japanese form of the Siberian Ground-Thrush was discovered by the Siebold expedition to 
Japan some time between the years 1823 and 1830; but its distinctness from G. sibirica was not 
recognized until 1877, when an example procured by Davison on the slopes of Mooleyit in 
Tenasserim was described under the name of Turdulus davisoni (Hume, Stray Feathers, v. p. 68). 
This example is now in the British Museum and is identical with Japanese examples; but Hume 
seems very soon to have convinced himself that it was only a very old example of the Siberian race, 
and on page 136 of the same volume he records it as Turdulus sibiricus (Palas) In 1878 a full 
description of this old male bird is given (Hume and Davison, Stray Feathers, vi. p. 255). 
There is no authentic record of the occurrence of this species on the island of Yezzo (Blakiston, 
Amended List of the Birds of Japan, p. 58); but it breeds in some numbers on the mountains of 
the main island of Japan. On Fuji-Yama it nests at an elevation of 5000 feet (Jouy, Proc. U.S. 
Nat. Mus. 1883, p. 278). I have a large series from the Yokohama market (Seebohm, Birds of the 
Japanese Empire, p. 44). 
I have only seen three examples which have been procured outside Japan, viz. :—the type of 
Turdulus davisoni, from Mooleyit, and a male and female procured in March by Major Wardlaw- 
Ramsay at Kareen-nee, 2500 feet above sea-level (Walden, in Blyth's Mammals and Birds of Burmah, 
p. 100). These three examples are in the British Museum. 
It is needless to add that nothing is known of the routes of migration of this species. Of its 
habits we know nothing, except that Messrs. Blakiston and Pryer state that the species is a favourite 
cage-bird with the Japanese, and is said to have a sweet but not very loud song (Ibis, 1878, p. 241). 
G. davisoni appears to differ from G. sibirica in three or four points. Іп the first place, the 
Japanese birds have longer tails in both sexes— 
Japan: в 3°75 to 89:4; 2 3:66 to 3:5. 
Siberia, %c.: в 24 to 31; 9 3:15 to 31. 
They have also longer wings— 
Japan: в 51 to475; 9 49 to 4:75. 
Siberia, &c.: 8 475 to 4:4. ; 2 44 to 4:35. 
Тһе Japanese birds are darker, especially on the crown, and they have much less white on the 
tips of the outer tail-feathers. Immature birds from Japan have some white on the belly, but in 
fully adult examples the white is confined to the feathers round the vent, which appears never to be 
the case in Siberian examples. 
VOL, I, p 
