merulid^;. 179 



The female has more of the smoke-grey colour on the back ; the feathers on 

 the head are also edged with that colour. There is more white on the throat, 

 and all the orange-coloured feathers beneath are edged with white. Her dimen- 

 sions are scarcely inferior to those of the male ; some specimens of both sexes, 

 however, measure, when recent, very little more than nine inches in length. 



The young bird differs in the dorsal plumage and wing 1 coverts, having - narrow 

 brownish-white streaks on the shafts ; in the shafts of the feathers of the head 

 being also pale ; in the rump and tail coverts being obscurely tipt with black ; in 

 the chin being nearly unspotted white ; and in the reddish-orange of the under 

 surface being much paler, and marked with pretty large transverse black spots on 

 the tips of the feathers. The bill is dark umber-brown, with the angles and bor- 

 ders of the mouth orpiment-orange. 



[38.] 2. Merula minor. (Swainson.) Little Tawny Thrush. 



Genus, Merula. Ray. (Turdus. Linn.) 



The Little Thrush. {Turdus parvus.) Edwards, pi. 296. 



Turdus iliacus Carolinensis. Brisson. Orn., ii., p. 212, omitting synonymes. 



Turdus minor. Gmelin. Syst., i., p. 809, No. 321, omitting synonymes. 



C'h. Sp. Merula minor, spadicea subtus albescens, pectore dilute ferrugineo maculis xerampelinis, remigibus 3 — 4 



longissimis : remige secundd quintam superanti. 

 Sp. Ch. Little Tawny Thrush, ferruginous ; beneath whitish ; throat and breast ferruginous-white, with pale 



spots ; the second, third, and fourth quills longest, the second shorter than the fourth. 



I can add nothing to the little that is known of the history of this Thrush, ex- 

 cept that it makes its appearance on the banks of the Saskatchewan in the month 

 of May ; but whether it breeds there, or proceeds farther north, I am unable to 

 say. It frequents damp, shady woods, and appears to be a solitary, silent species. 

 Mr. William Bartram, who sent Edwards the specimen which he has figured, 

 says that it arrives in Pennsylvania in April, and continues there all the summer, 

 employed in rearing its young. Tt is possible, however, that that naturalist 

 may have ascribed to it the habits of some of the species which so nearly resemble 

 it.— R. 



2 A 2 



