T U R D U S VISCIVOR.US.
TURDUS VISCIVORUS, Linn.
MISTLE-THRUSH.
La grosse Grive, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 200 (1760).
Turdus viscivorus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 291 (1766); Dresser, B. Eur. ii. p. 3, pi. i. (1871);
Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 194 (1881); id. Hist. Brit. B. i. p. 207 (1883); Lilford,
Col. Fig! Brit. B. part i. (1885); Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 1 (1889); Sharpe, Handb.
Brit. B. i. p. 267 (1894).
La Drenne, D’Aubent. PI. Enl. iv. pi. 489.
La Draine, Montb. Hist, Nat. Ois. iii. p. 295 (1775).
Missel-Thrush, Lath. Gen. Syn. ii. pt. 1, p. 16 (1783).
Sylvia viscivora, Savi, Orn. Tosc. i. p. 208 (1827).
Ixocossyphus viscivorus, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 145 (1829).
Turdus major, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 379 (1831).
Turdus arboreus, Brehm, tom. cit. p. 380,
Merula viscivora, Selby, Brit. Ora. i. p. 158 (1833).
Turdus hodgsoni (nec Homeyer), Bonap. Consp. Av. i. p. 269 (1850).
Turdus bonapartei, Cab. J. f. O. 1860, p. 183.
Turdus viscivorus hodgsoni (nec Homeyer), Pleske, Mel. Biol. xiii. p. 292 (1892).
T. caud& olivascenti-brunnefi: maculis nigris gastrsei triquetris : axillaribus albis : supercilio pallido nullo.
T he M istle-T hrush is the largest of the olive-brown-tailed species o f the genus Turdus, with
fan-shaped black spots on the breast. It is distinguished, moreover, from the Red-wing and the
Song-Thrush by its white axillaries, and from the former by the further want of the white eyebrow,
in addition to the differently coloured flanks.
It is a widely-distributed species in the Palsearctic Region, and for many years the Mistle-Thrush
of the Himalayas has been considered to be a different species and has generally been called Turdus
hodgsoni of Homeyer. As has been pointed out by Seebohm, however (antea, p. 29), the latter
name is a synonym of Oreocincla mollissima, and could not be used for the Mistle-Thrush of
Asia, even if the latter were distinct from its European relative. The Himalayan bird is now
generally admitted to be identical with the Mistle-Thrush of Europe, and all that Mr. Eugene
Oates, the latest authority on the subject, could find in the way of difference between the two
•forms was that the Himalayan bird had a slightly longer bill and a wing generally over
6 inches, whereas in European examples the wing is under 6 inches (Faun. Brit. Ind., Birds, i.
1 149),
In the British Islands the Mistle-Thrush is generally distributed and has gradually extended
its range, so that it nests at the present time as far north as Caithness and Sutherland and
in most of the Hebrides. It has not yet been met with in the Shetlands and is only a straggler
to the Orkneys (Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 1). In Ireland, Mr. R. J. Ussher says, it breeds in
every county, and is believed to be still increasing (Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. (3) iii, no. 8, p. 402),
VOL. i. x