procured, late in November 1874, at Hardtburg near Düsseldorf (Dresser, B. Eur. ii. p. 78); wbile a
tentb example is in tbe Museum of the Forstakadamie at Eberswald, between Berlin and Stettin, and
is said to have been caught near Cologne (Altum, J. f. O. 1879, p. 216). Lastly, another specimen
was obtained at Bereren, near Antwerp, on the 13th of October, 1885 (Croegaert, loc. cit.).
There are four records of the occurrence of White’s Thrush in France. The first recorded
example is in the Museum at Marseilles, and was caught near that city in October 1840 (Jaübert et
Barthélemy-Lapommeraye, Rich. Om. p. 202). The second example is in the Museum of Bayonne,
and was caught near that town in 1871 ; and the third is in the Museum of Caen, and was captured
on the coast between Caen and Bayeux in September 1872 ; whilst the fourth is in the collection of
Monsieur Bernard at Le Mans in the department of Sarthe, and was shot on the 10th of December,
1875 (Vian, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1880, p. 215).
A dozen or more examples of White’s Thrush have been taken on the little island rock of
Heligoland, and at least half a dozen others have been seen, but not procured. One was caught in
September 1834 and described as a new species under the name of Turdus squamatus (Boie, Isis,
1835, p. 251), and several other examples were sent by Koopmann and Reymers, the Heligoland
bird-stuffers, to Brandt of Hamburg between 1825 and 1840, most of them having been shot in
October. Since that date our information respecting the occurrence of rare birds on Heligoland has
been more precise, various communications from the pen of the resident ornithologist Heinrich Gatke
having appeared in the 4 Joumal für Ornithologie,’ the 4 Ibis,’ and other periodicals, where the visits
of various ornithologists to Heligoland have been recorded. The earliest of these mentions White’s
Thrush amongst the species in Gätke’s collection (Blasius, Naumannia, 1858, p. 310), and a
translation of this interesting article appeared in the 4 Ibis ’ four years later (Ibis, 1862, p. 58)lfbut
during the last twenty years Gätke’s case of White’s Thrushes has been several times described
(Cordeaux, Ibis, 1875, p. 177). It contains five perfect examples (Seebohm, Ibis, 1877, p. 164)£ and
excites the admiration of every visitor to the island (Selys-Longchamps, Bull. Sore. Zool. France,
1882, p. 271). Finally, in 1891, Gätke’s long-expected book on the birds of this curious island was
published, and the scattered details were collected together in his work 4 Die Vogelwarte Helgoland,’
and the following exact dates of the occurrence of White’s Thrush on the island may be accepted as
accurate :—An example on the 3rd of September, 1846 ; a male on the 3rd of October, 1849 ; a female
on the 4th of October, 1864 ; a male in very abraded plumage on the 23rd of April, 1869 ; a specimen
on the 1st of October, 1869, and a female on the 16th of the same month ; a specimen on the 18th
o f September, 1870 ; a male on the 9th of October, 1872; and a female on the 3rd of October, 1884.
It is interesting to note that in all these cases the occurrence has been in September or October, with
only one exception.
There are at least a score of records of the occurrence of White’s Thrush in the British Islands,
but only one of them refers to a Scotch example, which was killed at Hardacres, in Berwickshire,
during the last week of September 1878 (Brotherston, Zoologist, 1879, pp. 133, 177).
The species has occurred three times in Ireland. One example was shot, in December 1842, in
the county of Cork (Thompson, Natural History of Ireland, Birds, i. p. 128) ; a second was shot, in
the spring of 1867, in County Longford (Blake-Knox, Zoologist, 1870, pp. 2019, 2060) ; and a third
was killed on the 9th of January, 1885, at Westport in County Mayo (More, Zoologist, 1885, p. 111).
It is not known to have occurred in Wales, but there are many English records. The earliest is
that of an example which was shot at Heron Court near Christchurch in Hampshire, and was
described as a new species in 1836, under the name of Turdus whitei, by the late T. C. Eyton (Rarer
British Birds, p. 92). Other occurrences on the south coast are an example killed in January 1881
near Ashburton in Devonshire, said to be one of a flock of four or five of apparently the same
species (Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 260) ; au example killed in January 1874 in the parish of
Probus in Cornwall (Rodd, Zoologist, 1874, p. 3880) | aud another killed in December 1886 atTresco
in the Scilly Islands (Cornish, Zoologist, 1887, p. 114). There are three records from the valley of the
Severn; the first on the 26th of January, 1859, near Stratford-on-Avon (Tomes, Ibis, 1859, p. 379) ;
the second in January 1870 near Taunton in Somersetshire (Cecil Smith, Zoologist, 1870, p. 2018);
and the third on the 6th of January, 1871, near Langsford in the same county (Cecil Smith, Zoologist,
1871, p. 2607). One example has occurred in Norfolk, on the 10th of October, 1871, near
Hickling (Gunn, Zoologist, 1871, p. 2848); one in Suffolk in 1881, at Moulton, near Newmarket
(Babington, Birds of Suffolk, p. 249); and one in Durham, on the 17th of January, 1872 (Hancock,
Birds of Northumberland and Durham, p. 64).
White’s Thrush has occurred no less than five times in Yorkshire. An example said to have
been shot at Almondbury Bank near Huddersfield was exhibited on the 14th of October, 1864
(Beaumont, Naturalist, 1865, p. 217). A second example was seen, but not procured, early in
1870, at Danby in Cleveland (Atkinson, Zoologist, 1870, p. 2142). A third killed itself by flying
against a telegraph-wire near Whitby in November 1878 (Simpson, Zoologist, 1880, p. 68). A
fourth was shot at Rimswell near Withernsea in November 1881 (Clarke and Roebuck, Zoologist,
1884, p. 174). A fifth was obtained at Waplington Manor near Pocklington in January 1882
(Backhouse, Zoologist, 1882, p. 74).
There are several other records of the occurrence of White’s Thrush in England, but some of
them rest upon more or less doubtful evidence. I have several times met with examples of one or
other of the Australian Ground-Thrushes in collections where they were doing duty as White’s
Thrush, but by far the greater number of British occurrences above quoted may be accepted
without doubt.
The example shot in the winter of 1859 near Stratford-on-Avon, and recorded by Mr. Tomes,
frequented a dry leafy ditch in a small grass inclosure thickly surrounded by elms, and was busy
turning over the dead leaves, doubtless in search of food. Its flight was very undulating, like that o f
the Green Woodpecker, and low, the bird often settling on the ground and only making choice of a
tree when it happened to pass under one, into which it rose almost vertically. It appeared to be
almost entirely a ground-feeder, and was not seen to take any notice of the ivy- or hawthorn-berries,
on which Blackbirds and other Thrushes were feeding at the time.
Dr. Dybowski, describing its habits in the valley of the Selenga River, remarks that it is shy
and difficult to shoot, and that its song is quite different to that of the Song-Thrush. He describes
its call-note on migration as an original but melodious whistle.
Blakiston and Pryer, describing the habits of White’s Thrush in Japan, where it is probably
only a winter visitor, say that it has no song, only a single .penetrating note, like the plaintive
whistle of a Bullfinch, which can be heard for a long distance; and that, though the bird is very shy,
it can easily be attracted by imitating its note.
A nest and eggs were procured by Swinhoe in May 1872 at Ningpo in China, and were figured
by him in the late Mr. Dawson Rowley’s 4 Ornithological Miscellany’ (ii. p. 256, pi. lxi.); but the
nest was not absolutely identified as that of White’s Thrush, as the parent birds were not procured,
and it is possible that some mistake took place in the identification.
Geocichla varia is the largest species of the sub-genus Oreocincla, but there is not much
difference in size between the smallest examples of the Siberian species and the largest examples of
the Himalayan G. dauma. These two species resemble each other closely in colour, and the
variations attributable to age and season appear to be exactly the same in both. The general colour
of the upper parts of the adults in spring plumage is olive-brown rather than russet-brown, a
character only to be found elsewhere in the sub-genus in Geocichla lunulata, G. cuneata, and