TURDUS CONFINIS (Baird) 
ST.-LUCAS THRUSH. 
TT 
Turdus confinis, Baird, Review Amer. B. p. 29 (1864). 
Turdus migratorius, var. confinis, Coues, Key N. Amer. B. p. 72 (1872). 
Merula confinis, Ridgw. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. iii. p. 166 (1880). 
UT L 
T. gutture striato: pedibus fuscis, minimé flavis: suprà pallid brunnescenti-schistaceus: subtùs pallidé 
ochrascenti-fulvus : hypochondriis minimé rufis. 
Тила very distinct species was discovered by the late John Xantus at Todos Santos in Lower California, 
in 1860 (Baird, Review Amer. В. p. 29), and in 1881 the type specimen still remained unique in 
the U.S. National Museum at Washington (Ridgw. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. iv. p. 207). In 1883, 
however, Mr. Ridgway received specimens from Mr. L. Belding's expedition to Lower California, 
and gave a full description of two birds procured at Laguna in February of that year (Proc. 17.8. 
Nat. Mus. vi. p. 158). He remarks that * the characters of this species, as originally defined by 
Professor Baird, are not only quite constant, but very pronounced, so that there need be no further 
reason for denying it the specific rank to which it is clearly entitled." 
Mr. L. Belding (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. vi. p. 364) says that upon meeting with the first pines 
in the Victoria Mountains in Lower California he found this Thrush, “but only about a dozen of 
them were seen, and these were all on the Laguna trail. About half were found singly, one as low 
as 2500 feet above sea-level.” He adds :—“ Mr. Cipriano Fisher, an American, who had often hunted 
deer at Laguna, informed me that these Thrushes were sometimes abundant there. This may be the 
case when Ше berries of the California holly (Heteromeles), which grows abundantly in the 
neighbourhood, are ripe. 
“The type specimen, shot by Xantus at Los Todos in summer, may have been a straggler from 
the mountains, Possibly there was a mistake made in recording it, as I suspect was the case with 
the Oreortyx picta plumifera (see Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. v. p. 988), which is not at present а bird of 
Cape St. Lucas; and this leads me to remark that I consider the term * Cape species, when it covers 
all the birds from La Paz and south of it, an inappropriate one—inappropriate for the good reason 
that so few of the so-called Cape species really occur at Cape St. Lucas—its only special advantage 
as a collecting ground being its well-sheltered harbour, which affords good opportunities for shooting 
Y a јаје први Ps Ee ord 
marine species." 
A. specimen of this Thrush has been said to have been obtained at Hayward's in California 
(A. O. U. Check-list N. Amer. B. 2nd ed. p. 320). 
Adult male. General colour above slaty-grey, slightly paler on the lower back, rump, and upper 
tail-coverts ; wing-coverts and quills dull sepia-brown, externally slaty-grey, more hoary on the edges 
of the quills; tail dark sepia-brown, margined with slaty-grey, the outermost feather narrowly fringed 
with white at the end; crown of head slaty-grey like the back ; lores blackish, surmounted by a 
narrow line of white, which extends above the eye; eyelid white above and below; feathers below 
the eye blackish, shading off gradually into slaty-grey on the ear-coverts; sides of neck clear 
slaty-grey; cheeks blackish, slightly varied with white streaks; throat white, streaked with rows of 
VOL. I. 2p 
