188 BLACK-THROATED THRUSH. 
There seems to have been some confusion created 
among systematic writers on ornithology about this bird. 
Thus Brehm denies that it is identical with the Turdus 
dubius of Bechstein, and also differs in opimion with 
Naumann and Temminck, who have described the T. 
auroreus of Pallas as identical with T. atrogularis, an 
opinion shared in by Schlegel and other ornithologists. 
Upon this subject Temminck remarks :— 
“As I cannot form any opinion from inspection of 
the identical species, I think it will be serviceable to 
give the description furnished by M. Brehm of his T. 
dubius. “The upper part of the body is of a beautiful 
olive brown, but the rump is lighter; there is a red- 
dish border to the wings, and an indistinct brown 
band over the eyes; the front of the body to the 
upper part of the chest is tan-colour, without spots 
on the middle of the neck, but with blackish brown 
streaks on the sides; these spots take a triangular form 
at the upper part of the chest; the rest of the under 
parts of a dull white. The plumage of the young 
bird is like T. atrogularis, but there is a yellow band 
above the eyes.’ 
If M. Brehm did not give so many new species and 
sub-species some value might be attached to the dif- 
ference in the form of the spots, and in the absence 
or presence of a band over the eyelids; but we may 
also add we cannot be too particular in admitting what 
are presumed to be new species, especially in Asiatic 
Thrushes. The greater number known shew such a 
disparity in the colours, in their distribution and im the 
form of spots at different epochs of the moult and at 
different ages, that the young female and old male of 
the same species may easily be mistaken and separated 
as quite distinct.” 
