TURDUS DilVACE01 DSCJS
Ha.aha.pt imp.
TURDUS OLIVACEIFUSCUS, Marti.
ST. THOMAS ISLAND THRUSH.
Turdus olivaceofuscvs, Hartl. Abth. Ges. Nat. Hamb. ii. pt. 2, p. 491, pi. iii. (1852); Seebohm,
Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 189 (1881).
T. pectore maculis squamatis brunneis ornato: gutture et praepectore brunneis, fer& concoloribus: gul& vix albido
maculate.
T his Thrush was discovered by Weiss in the island of St. Thomas in the Bight of Benin, W. Africa,
and the type is in the Hamburg Museum. It has since been found in the same island by Senhor
Francesco Newton, who states that it is common and universally distributed (Bocage, Jom. Lisb. (2)
no. vi. p. 80, 1891).
The nest is described by Professor Barboza du Bocage as a flattened cup composed of roots of
ferns, threads of palms, and stems and leaves of grasses. The eggs are oval and greenish in colour,
with many irregular spots and dots of reddish-brown: axis 34 millim., diam. 21 millim.
Adult male. General colour above dark olive-brown, the wing-coverts like the back; quills dark
brown, externally olive-brown like the back; head like the back; lores and sides of face dusky
oiive-brown; throat brown, slightly mottled with white centres to the feathers ; fore-neck and chest
nearly uniform pale umber-brown, the feathers o f the latter varied with sub-terminal bars of whitish;
breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts white, the feathers edged at the ends with crescentic lines
of pale brown, less distinct on the flanks, which are pale umber-brown; thighs ashy; under wing-
coverts orange-buff, the axillaries also orange-buff, but shaded with pale brown at the ends ; lower
primary-coverts and quill-lining dull sepia-brown, with the base of the inner webs ochraceous-buff:
bill and feet dark brown; iris chestnut. Total length 9'0 inches, culmen 0 9 5 inch, wing 4'6 inches,
tail 3*5 inches, tarsus 1*25 inch.
Adult female. Similar to the male. Total length 9*0 inches, culmen 0-95 inch, wing 4*6 inches,
tail 3‘65 inches, tarsus 1*25 inch.
The proportions of the quills are as follows:—Third primary equal to the sixth, the fourth and
fifth equal and longest; second primary intermediate between the seventh and eighth. The author
relied on the “ second primary being equal to or longer than the fifth ” as the principal character for
the separation of T. olivaceifuscus from T. bewsheri, but, as will be seen on comparison, the brown
throat is the more reliable point of distinction from that species. It is certainly remarkable that two
Thrushes from such widely separated localities should be so exceedingly close to each other in general
appearance.
The descriptions and figures are taken from specimens in the British Museum.
B. S.]