BIRDS—TURDIDAE—TURDUS NANUS. 
213 
Specimens vary somewhat in the intensity of the colors above, hut the upper coverts and tail. 
are always conspicuously more rufous than the back, especially at the base of the tail. There 
is sometimes a faint indication of two lighter bars on the tips of the wing coverts. Sometimes 
the under coverts are tinged with huff. A specimen from Washington (7591) has the hack 
nearly as bright as in T. wilsonii, and the bands on the wing unusually distinct, hut the tail is 
conspicuously brighter, as usual. 
A Mexican specimen (No. 7950) received from Mr. Gould, compared with Pennsylvania ones, 
is a little more olivaceous on the hack, although hut little more so than is exhibited by skins 
from Carlisle. The wing is longer, however, measuring a little over four inches; the tail, 
3.40; the tarsus, 1.18. The lateral toes are shorter and more unequal. The third quill is 
longer than the fifth ; the second .10 of an inch longer than the sixth. I am not prepared to 
say whether this is more than an extreme case of T. pallasii. Should this at any time prove a 
distinct species from solitarius, as it certainly is from nanus , it might hear Swainson’s name of 
T. silens 1 as best agreeing with it, in spite of some discrepancies. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
Sex. 
Locality. 
When collected. 
Whence obtained. 
Orig. 
No. 
Length. 
Stretch 
of wings. 
Wing. 
2092 
Carlisle __ _ 
April 11, 1845 
April 26, 1845 
April 20, 1844 
April 10, 1840 
S. F Baird. 
7.50 
11. 83 
3. 83 
2146 
Q 
___do_ 
_do..-.__ 
7. 25 
11. 50 
3. 75 
1375 
Q 
-...do_,_ 
_do_ _ _ 
7.16 
11. 50 
3. 66 
93 
J 1 
_do._ 
_do____ 
37 
7591 
Washington, D C_ 
Wm. Hutton_ 
7292 
Rockport, Ohio_ 
J. P. Kirtland_ __ 
TURDUS NANUS, A u d . 
Dwarf Thrush. 
Turdus nanus, Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 201 ; pi. 419 .—Ib. Birds Amer. Ill, 1841, 32 ; pi. 147, (Columbia river.)— 
Gambel, Pr. A. N. Sc. I, 1843, 262. 
? Turdus aonalaschka, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 808. 
?? Muscicapa guttata, Pallas, Zool. Rosso. As. II, 1811, 465. 
? Aonalaschka Thrush, Latham, Synopsis II, i, 1783, 23.— Penn. Arc. Zool. II, 1785, 338. 
Sp. Ch. —Similar to T. pallasii, but smaller. The white of the under parts purer ; the sides glossed with bluish ash instead 
of yellowish olive brown. The tail with a purple tinge. Length, 6.50 ; wing, 3.30 ; tail, 2.90 ; tarsus, 1.10. 
Hah .—Pacific coast of North America, and along valley of Gila to El Paso. 
■ This species, if really distinct, is so closely allied to T. pallasii as to render a separation of 
the two exceedingly difficult. There is the same shade of olive on the hack, passing into reddish 
on the upper coverts and tail, and to a less extent on the wings ; the pale huff tinge of the fore 
part of breast and sometimes of throat; the distinctly defined triangular dusky spots on the 
sides of the throat and across the breast; the less distinct and more rounded spots on the sides 
of the breast behind. Comparing typical specimens of the eastern series (T. pallasii ) and 
the western ( T. nanus ) the differences appear to be as follows : 
1 Merula silens, Swainson, Syn. Birds Mex. in Philosophical Magazine I, 1827, 369.— Ib. F. Bor. Amer. II, 1831. 
Length, 7 inches ; bill, .75; wings, 3.75; tail, 3 ; tarsi, 1. 
