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says :—“ During the first week after its arrival it is very shy and silent, keeping in the darkest and: 
deepest thickets, uttering a single chuck of alarm when disturbed. Ав their numbers increase, a few 
are heard singing at dusk and in the early morning. By the time they have all arrived, the woods 
fairly ring with their clear metallic song. Тһеу nest in dark secluded thickets." Пт. Merrill writes 
that at Fort Klamath in Oregon the species ** arrived about the 20th of May, a few nesting near the 
Fort and in suitable situations in the mountains. Its loud sweet song was heard at sunrise and 
sunset, but the birds were shy and difficult to shoot. А nest found on the 8th of June, containing 
four fresh eggs, was in a dense willow-thicket, and placed on a horizontal branch about two feet 
from the ground." 
The Russet-backed Thrush, as this species is called by American ornithologists, is not remarkable 
for a russet back, and an attempt to distinguish specimens by this character alone would lead to 
failure, for many birds killed in autumn are quite olive on the upper surface, though they retain a 
slight tint of russet-brown on the tail. In 7. swainsoni the upper surface is often dusky olive-brown 
and the tail partakes of the same colour as the back, the ruddy tint is not perceptible, and the wings 
are also externally darker and do not show so much rufous. It is often extremely difficult to separate 
these dark Turdus swainsoni from T. alicia, and I have found Mr. Ridgway's character of the pale 
orbital ring of great assistance in separating the specimens. Needless to say, I have received 
great assistance from the determination of the specimens in the Henshaw Collection which were 
named by Mr. Ridgway and Dr. Henshaw before the collection was despatched to Europe. With 
the large series at my disposal I can only say that a perfect intergradation between Т. ustulatus 
and T. swainsoni appears to exist, and I only keep them separate because Mr. Seebohm has figured 
them as distinct. 
Some specimens are scarcely distinguishable from T. aliciw, and are equally dark above and 
have dark grey flanks; one specimen from Corpus Christi, Texas, closely resembles a skin of 
T. alicia from Concord, Mass. (Henshaw Coll.), but has the distinct eyelid of T. swainsoni as well as 
the larger pale mirror on the quill-linings, while the sides of the face are buff, not grey. In fact one 
of the chief characteristics of this species seems to be the well-marked light patch at the base of 
the inner aspect of the quills, which is almost Geocichline in character. Mr. Ridgway, in his 
‘Manual,’ separates 7. ustulatus and T. swainsoni on account of the very distinct ring of feathers 
round the eye, a very good character when the skins are well-prepared, but one which fails when 
the taxidermist has been careless, or when a shot has damaged the plumage of the head. 
Mr. Ridgway (Expl. 40th Parallel, Orn. p. 397) gives the soft parts as follows :—“ Bill black, 
the basal half of the lower mandible pale brownish-lilac ; iris sepia-brown ; tarsi pale lilac-brown, the 
toes darker." 
The specimen figured is a Californian one in the Seebohm Collection. [R. B. S.] 
