Ernst records it as an inhabitant of Venezuela (Estud. Flor, y Faun. Venez. p. 301, 1877), and a
specimen from this country is in the Seebohm Collection in the British Museum and is figured in the
present work as Turdus phceopygoides. The type of the last-named species is also in the Museum ;
it was procured in the island of Tobago by Governor Ussher. After a comparison with specimens
from the mainland, I am unable to see any reason why the Tobago bird should be separated from
T . phceopygus. Count von Berlepsch separates the Colombian form as Turdus phceopygus saturatus
(I. s. c.), but specimens from Bogotá (coll. Seebohm and Salvin-Godman) are absolutely inseparable
from T. phceopygus.. Buckley obtained the species at Sarayacu in Ecuador, while Mr. O. T. Baron has
met with it near Guayahamba in Peru in August, at 3800-4000 feet elevation.
Beyond the note given by Léotaud, and recorded above, I have found no information as to the
habits of this Thrush. Mr. Layard (Ibis, 1873, p. 378) says that he found seeds in the stomach of a
specimen killed near Para, while Léotaud states that its food consists of berries.
Adult male. General colour above dark olive-brown, slightly russet in tint, becoming slaty-grey
on the lower rump and upper tail-coverts; wing-coverts like the hack; bastard-wing, primary-
coverts, and quills dusky brown, externally olive-brown, the inner secondaries entirely like the back •
tail blackish-brown, washed with slaty-grey; lores slaty-blackish, with a slight supra-loral tinge of
lighter grey, which also spreads a little below the eye; ear-coverts and cheeks uniform dusky olive-
brown, the former slightly mottled with white streaks on the lower part; chin and upper throat white
with dusky brown centres to the feathers, producing a striped appearance, this streaked area being
sharply defined and succeeded by a conspicuous patch of white on the lower throat; fore-neck, breast,
and entire sides o f body light slaty-grey, the centre of the abdomen and under tail-coverts pure white;
thighs slaty-grey with whitish fringes to the feathers; sides of chest dark olive-brown like the sides
of the neck; under wing-coverts and axillaries light slaty-grey; quills dusky below, slightly more
ashy along the inner web. Total length 7-5 inches, culmen 0-65, wing 4, tail 2*9, tarsus IT.
Adult female. Does not differ in colour from the male. Total length 7*5 inches, wing 4.
Young birds are rather more rufescent than the old ones, but otherwise reproduce the same
colours of the upper surface, excepting that the feathers are all mesially streaked with tawny-buff;
the throat and centre of the breast and abdomen, as well as the under tail-coverts, are white, with
dusky margins to the feathers of the throat; the chest and sides of the body are orange-buff, with
rather broad blackish margins to the feathers, the white breast and abdomen being also slightly mottled
with dusky margins to the feathers; under wing-coverts and axillaries orange-buff, with dusky bases.
As already stated, I do not believe that the separation of Turdus phceopygoides from T. phceopygus
can be maintained, and my opinion is that the more russet or more olive colour of the upper parts is
dependent on season, as is most certainly the case in T. leucauchen. Specimens from British Guiaria
match the olive-coloured type of T. phceopygoides from Tobago, and the fine series collected in British
Guiana by Whitely clearly shows that the more russet-coloured birds are those found from November
to January, and the more olive-coloured ones are those procured in August and September after the
moult. Whitely’s specimens represent the bird in nearly every month of the year and in every stage
of plumage, and no one can doubt that T. phceopygoides is only the winter plumage of T. phceopyqus.
The dimensions of this species vary considerably, and a difference in length of wing is of no
importance in a series.
The specimen figured as T. phceopygus is from Yquitos, and is in the Seebohm Collection.
[R. B. S.]„ •
TURDUS PHÆOPYGOIDES, Seebohm,
TOBAGO WHITE-THROATED THRUSH.
Turdus jamaicensis (nec Gm.), Jardine, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. xx. p. 329 (1847).
Turdus phceopygus, pt., Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 208 (1881).
Turdus phceopygoides, Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 404 (1881).
T he figure of Turdus phceopygoides in the accompanying Plate was drawn under the direction of the
late author, who thus appears to have been thoroughly convinced of the difference between this
supposed species and T. phceopygus. X have already expressed my opinion that the Tobago bird is
identical with the Continental form, and X believe that Seebohm himself, after an examination of
the material at present in the British Museum, would have acquiesced in the correctness ot this
decision. WÊÊ
The specimen sent to the Museum from.; Tobago by the late Governor Ussher was unaccompanied
by any note on the habits of the bird, hut Mr. Kirk wrote as foEows to Sir William Jardine :
“Utters a ‘ chuck chuck’ while hopping along the ground; is particularly shy and restless ; feeds
upon small berries and upon the seeds of the cabbage-tree. _
The following is Seebohm’s note on the distinctive characters of T. phceopygoides (Cat. Birds But.
Mus. v. p. 404) Examples from Eastern Peru (cf. Scl. & Salv. P. Z. S. 1867, p. 754) are stffl
more russet-brown than typical skins from Guiana, whilst an example from the island of Tobago is
more oEve-brown and larger in size. I f the latter form he suh-specificaUy distinct, which must be
conceded if the lines laid down'by Neotropical ornithologists he fotiowed, I propose to caE it Turdus
H T a f z ’anowski afterwards referred specimens from Eastern Peru to T. phceopygoides (Orn. Pérou,
i p. 490), hut he apparently knew only of the examples from Chyavetas and Chamicuros collected
by Bartlett and now in the British Museum : these are certainly inseparable from true Turdus
phceopygus. Another misapprehension I on Taczanowski’s part appears to have been that the
distinctive character of T. phceopygoides consisted in the more rufous shade of the upper surface,
whereas the contrary is the case, for Seebohm separated the Tobago bird on the strength of its
more olive coloration, and the specimen figured in the Plate is an oEve-coloured specimen from
Venezuela in his own Collection. In deference to Seebohm’s opinion, I have treated of T. phoeopy-
goides as a distinct species, hut I have no doubt in my own mind that it is not realty sparable
from T. phceopygus. . ^ 1 _ L • • -1
2 H 2