CICHLOSELYS SIBIRTCUS 
Siberian Thrush. 
Turdus sibiricus, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 815. 
leucocillus, Pall. Faun. Ross., tom. i. p. 450. 
auroreus, Pall. Faun. Ross., tom. i. p. 448. 
atrocyaneusy Homeyer. 
Menila sihirica, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., tom. i. p. 274. 
Oreocincla sihirica, Jaub. Rich. Orn., p. 202. 
Cichloselys sibericus, Bonap. in Parz. Cat. des Ois. d’Europe. 
Geocichla, new. sp., Swinh. in Ibis, 1861, p. 37. 
Whether the earlier British ornithologists were less observant than those of the present day is a question 
not easily solved. In all probability they were, and many strange birds visited these islands then as now, 
and, after a brief sojourn, departed again to the countries whence they came ; yet we do not find any notices 
of such occurrences in the works of the earlier writers on our avifauna. However this may be, certain it is that 
very many species have visited us of late years both from the east and the west which do not appear to have 
been known in the times of Gilbert White, Montagu, and Bewick. With regard at least to the eastern birds 
which have occurred here during the last twenty years, I suspect that very many of them have been induced 
by some unwonted cause to wander westward, and that such species as Oreocincla aiirea, Merula atrogiilaris, 
Eryfhrosterna parm, Carpodacus erythrinus, Eiispiza melanocephala, Emberiza pasilla, E. rustica, and Syrrhaptes 
paradoxus have seldom, if ever before, paid occasional visits to the British Islands. Unable at this moment 
to refer to the page, I belic'^e I have somewhere stated in my ‘ Birds of Europe,’ published more than thirty 
years ago, that a work on the “ birds of Great Britain could scarcely be considered complete unless the 
whole of the European species were figured therein, inasmuch as one or other of them would certainly occur 
in our islands at some time or other ; and that the idea was not fallacious is evident by the occurrence of the 
species mentioned above, and several others, to which I have now to add the Siberian Thrush, of which a very 
fine example, now in the possession of F. Bond, Esq., was shot by a Mr. Drewett at St. Catherine’s Hill, 
near Guildford, in Surrey, in the beginning of February 1855, during the Crimean war. This indmdual, 
apparently a female, is faithfully represented in the upper figure of the accompanying plate, the male being 
figured from an eastern specimen. After a moment’s reflection, such a visit need not excite surprise, but 
might be naturally expected, since there are many instances of the bird’s occurrence in the western parts of 
the European continent, as will be seen from the following extract from Dr. Bree’s valuable ‘ Birds of 
Europe not found in the British Islands :’ — 
“Th is bird is, as its name Implies, an inhabitant of Siberia; but it has occurred a sufficient number of 
times in Europe to merit a place in its avifauna. 
‘AYe have the authority of Pallas for its occurrence in Southern Russia, of Professor Blasius for its 
appearance in Germany; and M. Jaubert, in his ‘Richesses Ornithologiques,’ mentions two instances of 
its having been captured in France. Homeyer has described it as T. atrocyaneus upon the authority of a 
fine specimen killed in the north of Germany. 
“ In Dr. Sclater’s excellent paper on the geographical distribution of the genus Turdus (‘ Ibis,’ 
1861, p. 278) we find T. sibiricus in the Palaearctic Region, appearing in Siberia, Amoor Land, Japan, 
and China ; and we have its occurrence in these countries verified by Mr. Swinhoe and other writers. 
Dr. Schrenck does not, however, mention it in his ‘ Reisen Im Amur-Lande.’ 
“ Of its habits and nidlfication I am unable to say any thing.” 
In Mr. Swinhoe’s catalogue of the birds of China, published in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological 
Society of London ’ for 1863, he describes a male in complete plumage which was shot at Amoy on the 
19th of April, 1861, and remarks : — “ this is said to be a common bird in Siberia. In Japan it probably 
breeds, as Captain Blakiston brought young birds from Hakodadi. In the south of China it is rare, 
occurring occasionally during its migrations. It is said to have been procured as far south as Java.” 
I have great pleasure in adopting the late Prince Charles Bonaparte’s generic name of Cichloselys for this 
bird, since it will not range wuth either Merula, Turdus, or Oreocincla, to which latter form, however, it is 
most nearly affined. 
The fi gures are of the natural size 
