214 
U. S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS-ZOOLOGY-GENERAL REPORT. 
The shade of the hack is the same, perhaps a little more olive in T. nanus, in which the 
centres of the feathers of the crown are a little more dusky. There is also in nanus a slight 
purple tinge in the tail. The under parts show a purer white behind, and the sides, axillaries, 
and under wing coverts show a bluish gray tinge rather than a pale brownish yellow. The 
under tail coverts are pure white, without the usual tinge of buff. There is no essential differ¬ 
ence in the proportion of the quills. The tail may possibly he more rounded in nanus. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
Sex. 
Locality. 
When collected. 
Whence obtained. 
Collected by— 
Length. 
Wing. 
3895 
California_....... 
Dr. Heermann_ 
4483 
Santa Clara, Cal___ 
Dr. Cooper _ 
6. 50 
9. 25 
5943 
_...do___.... 
Nov. 1855_ 
_.... do._. ___ _ 
7. 00 
10. 50 
8168 
Sacramento valley 
__ _ _do. 
Lt. Williamson.__, _ 
Dr. Heermann ^ ^ . 
8169 
Mimhres to Dio Grande _ 
8170 
O 
Frontera, Texas_ 
May 8, 1851 
C. Wright. 
6. 80 
2. 56 
TURDUS FUSCESCENS, Stephens. 
Wilson’s Thrush. 
Turdus fuscescens, Stephens, Shaw’s Zool. Birds, X, i, 1817, 182.— Gray, Genera, 1849. 
Turdus mustdinus, Wilson, Am. Orn. V, 1812, 98 ; pi. 43, (not of Gm.) 
Turdus wilsonii, Bon. Obs. Wils. 1825, No. 73, (not of Swainson.)— Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 271.— Nutt. Man. I, 
1832, 349.— Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 362 : V, 446 ; pi. 166.— Ib. Birds Am. Ill, 1841,-27 ; pi. 
145.— Brewer, Pr. Bost. N. H. Soc. I, 1844, 191.— Cabanis, in Tsehudi Fauna Peruana, 1844— 
’46, 205. 
Turdus minor, Gm. I, 1788, 809. (From Pennant and Latham, compounded of this and T. swainsonii.) — D’Orbigny, 
De la Sagra’s Cuba, Birds, 47 ; pi. v. 
JSIerula minor, Swainson, F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 179, (plate that of swainsonii.) 
Turdus iliacus carolinensis, Brisson, II, 1760, 212. 
? Turdus parvus, (Edw.) Seligmann, Samml. VIII, 1775, pi. lxxxvi. 
Little Thrush, Latham, Synopsis II, i, 1783, 20. 
Sp. Ch. —Third quill longest; fourth a little shorter ; second nearly a quarter of an inch longer than the fifth. Above, and 
on sides of head and neck, nearly uniform light reddish brown, with a faint tendency to orange on the crown and tail. Beneath, 
white ; the fore part of the breast and throat (paler on the chin) tinged with pale brownish yellow, in decided contrast to the 
white of the belly. The sides of the throat and the fore part of the breast as colored are marked with small triangular spots of 
light brownish, nearly like the back, but not well defined. There are a few obsolete blotches on the sides of the breast (in the 
white) of pale olivaceous; the sides of the body tinged with the same. Tibiae white. The lower mandible is brownish only 
at the tip. The lores are ash colored. Length, 7.50 ; wing, 4.25 ; tail, 3.20 ; tarsus, 1.20. 
Hah. —Eastern North America to the Missouri; north to fur countries. 
This species is well distinguished among the American thrushes by the indistinctness of 
the spots beneath, and their being confined mainly to the fore part of the breast. In some 
specimens there is a faint tendency to a more vivid color on the rump, hut this is usually like 
the back, which is very nearly the color of the rump in T. pallasii. 
One specimen (6992) is quite remarkable for the shortness of the bill, which only measures 
hall an inch above instead of .65 of an inch as in other specimens. I am, however, unable to 
ap reciate any other difference. 
