White’s Thrush, has only once occurred on Yezzo, but is brought in considerable numbers to the
winter market in Yokohama (Seebohm, Birds Jap. Emp. p. 43), and may possibly breed on the
volcano of Fuji-yama, as it is said to have been once shot'there in.June (Blakiston and Pryer, Ibis,
1878, p. 241), but it was not found in that locality by Jouy’s expedition. Mr. Ringer has forwarded
examples from Nagasaki, from which place it was. sent to Europe at least as long ago as 1840
(Temminck, Man. d’Om. iv. p. 604). Jean Kalinowski procured a pair in the spring of 1887 near
Seoul, the capital of Korea (Tacz. P. Z. S, 1,887». p. 602). , . . .. • ^
It passes through North China on migration in spring and autumn (David et Oustalet* Ois.
Chine, p. 158), and the remains of ah example which had probably been killed by a hawk were
found in a tomb-grove between Takoo and Pekin in September 1860 and were recorded under the
name of Oreocincla whitei by Swinhoe (Ibis, 1861*p. 333). An example was procured on Lighthouse
Island, near Chefoo, on the 6th of October (Swinhoe,' Ibis, 1874, p. 445). The nest of the present
species is said to have been found in May 1872 at Ningpo, to the south of the delta of the Yahgtze-
Kiang, but the evidence is not altogether satisfactory.
White’s Thrush winters in Southern China, and is recorded, under the name of Oreocincla aurea,
by Swinhoe (Ibis, 1860, p. .56) as a straggling visitant to Amoy, a male bird, now in my collection,
having been obtained by him on the 7th of March, 1859, and a second specimen observed, while
a third was procured in March 1866.
It is probable that the species also winters.in Formosa, whefe an example was obtained on the
Camphor Hills, in the north of the island, on the 20th of March, 1862, and described as a distinct
species under the name of Oreocincla hancii by Swinhoe (Ibis, 1863, p. 275). A second example
was procured by him on the 15th of March, 1864 (Ibis, 1866, p. 304), and I have examined a third
in the Paris Museum.
The Formosan birds are undoubtedly much less ochraceous than Japanese skins, but as they
are in spring plumage (the type is dated March 20th), and most of the Japanese specimens are in
autumn plumage, the difference is probably one of season rather than of race. This opinion was also
entertained by Swinhoe, who afterwards regarded 0. hancii as identical with 0. varia (P. Z. S. 1871,
p. 368);. and though, in 1881, I treated the Formosan bird as a distinct species under the name of
Geocichla hancii (Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 158), the large series which has since passed through my
hands has led me to believe that Swinhoe was right in suppressing the name.
Further to the south the species winters in the Philippine Islands (Tweeddale, P. Z. S. 1878j
p. 429), probably only in the high mountains, as Mr. John Whitehead has met with it in the highlands
of Luzon (Ogilvie Grant, Ibis, 1895, p. 445).
There is also .a specimen in the British Museum from Pegu, where it was procured by
Major Wardlaw Ramsay on the 17th of January (Oates, Faun. Brit. Ind., Birds, ii. p. 153). There
is, however, no evidence that White’s Thrush has' ever occurred further west on migration in any part
of the Indian Peninsula, the specimens referred to the present species by Blyth, Jerdon, Hodgson,
and others having turned out to be G. dauma or G. nilgiriensis.
I t is not known that White’s Thrush breeds west of the valley of the Yenesei. According to
Professor Slowzow, of Tynmen, it is a rare straggler to the district north of Omsk and common in
the district south of that town (Menzbier, Ibis, 1893, p. 372); but i f this be the case it is rather
remarkable that there is not an example in Professor Slowzow’s Museum. A single example has
been procured to the south of Omsk and has been identified by Dr. Menzbier. Three examples
have been obtained in East Russia—one of them in July 1887 near Slatoust on the Ural Mountains
south of Ekaterinburg, and two of them (August 1891 and August 1892) near Perm; but no mention
is made of this species in SabanaefFs ‘ Avifauna of the Ural ’ or in Bogdanow’s | Birds of the Volga.’
To various parts of Europe White’s Thrush comes as an accidental visitor. There are four
records of the occurrence of this species in Scandinavia and the basin of the Baltic. As long ago as
1849 the Königsberg Museum possessed an example which was shot at Elbing, on the southern
shores of the Gulf of Dantzig (Homeyer, Rhea, ii. p. 145), and in the same museum there are thé
remains of an example killed in 1879 in the same district (Hartert, Ibis, 1892, p. 358). In the
Stockholm Museum there is a still, older example, which was killed in November 1837 in the province
of Jemtland in Central Sweden (Sundevall, K. Svensk. Vetensk.-Akad. Forh. 1840, p. 36) ; and
recently an example was procured in October 1879 in the south-west o f Norway, in the Ryfylke
District, north-east of Stavanger, in the museum of which town it has been placed (Collett, Vid. Selsk.
Christiania Forh. 1881, part 10, p. 1),
There are two records of the occurrence of White’s Thrush in the basin of the Danube. The
earliest refers to an example which was bought in.the flesh in the Vienna bird-market about half a
century ago, and was in the Museum of Prince Richard von Khevenhulle-Metsch at Ladendorf, four
hours’ journey from Vienna (Dr. J. R. S., Isis, 1845, p. 564). A second example is in the Vienna
Museum and was bought from a dealer in 1847 as having come from Aspang to the south of Vienna,
and was recorded under the name of Turdus dauma (Pelzein, Verh. zool.-bot. Gesellsch. Wien, 1871,
p. 703).
There are eight records of the occurrence of this species in Italy and the Transalpine Tyrol.
The first example was caught on the 7th of October, 1854, near Borgo, in the Val Sugana east of
Trient, and was placed in the Museum at Roveredo (Unterstainer, Comm. Fauna, etc. Verr. et Trent,
p. 252). The second was caught in 1861 in the same district, at Arco on the Lago di Garda
(Althammer, Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1861, p. 553). The third was bought in the winter of 1863 in
the bird-market of Genoa, and is now in the Turati collection in the Milan Museum (Salvadori, Cat.
Ucc; Sardegna, p. 26). The fourth was procured on the 17th of October, 1870, near Genoa, and is
now in the . Civic Museum of that city (Salvadori, Faun. Ital., Uccelli, p. 78). The fifth was shot on
the 14th of October, 1873, at Poggio Scali in the Tuscan Apennines, and is now in the Florence
Museum ; and the sixth, which was also shot in the autumn of 1873, near Rome, is now in the
University Museum of that city (Giglioli, Ibis, 1881, p. 197). The seventh example was procured
in the autumn of 1885 on the Island of Elba (Giglioli, Avifauna Italica, i. p. 186) ; and the eighth
on the 8th November in the Siena District (Brogi, Revista Italiana, 1889, p. 272).
Eleven examples have been recorded from Belgium and the valley of the Rhine. The earliest
(and, so far as is known, the first record of the species in Europe) is that of an example in the
Metz Museum, which was caught in the woods of Rezonville in September 1788, and was described as
.a new species under the name of Turdus aureus by Holandre (Ann. Verronaire, 1825* p. 310). The
examples recorded in 1840 as having been caught on the Rhine and in Germany. (Temminck, Man.
d’Om. iv. p. 604) may possibly rèfer to birds sent from Heligoland, and being without exact date or
locality may be passed by as of no scientific value.
The second authenticated individual was caught on the 17th of October, 1842, in the forest of
Dron-le-Mont, and was placed in the cabinet of Baron de Selys-Longchamps ; the third was bought
about the year 1846 by Monsieur C. F. Dubois in a collection of Belgian birds, which were
unfortunately without exact localities or dates; the fourth was discovered in the year 1854 by the
last-named ornithologist in the Museum at Grez belonging to the Prince de Looz, whose curator
assured him that it had been procured at Namur (Dubois, J. f. O. 1856, p. 239). The fifth was
caught in October 1855 near Louvain and came into the possession of Monsieur Bovie; and the sixth
was shot about the same date near Jemappes and sold to M. Denison (Dubois, J. f. O. 1856, p. 505).
A seventh specimen was obtained on the 28th of September, 1864, at Bereren near Antwerp
(Çroegaert, Bull. Mus. Roy. Belg. 1888, p. 106). , The' eighth was shot, in October 1870, near
Termonde (Alph. Dubois, Faun. 111. Vertébr. Belgique; Ois. p. 27.1), and. a ninth specimen was
B 2