1885). An example procured at Pelotas is also in the Salvin-Godman Collection, as well as one
from the province of Santa Catharina obtained by Mr. H. Rogers. From Rio de Janeiro the British
Museum has specimens presented by Mr. Alexander Fry, and Natterer procured several in the
province of San Paulo, at Sapitiba in May, November, and December, at Goyaba in January,
Ypanema from April to November, and at Curytiba in October (Pelz. Orn. Bras. p. 93). Burmeister
says that it also occurs not rarely near Lagoa Santa (Th. Bras. iii. p. 123).
Natterer also met with the species near the city of Goiaz in August (Pelz. Orn. Bras. p. 93), and
it is evidently common near Bahia, as the British Museum has many specimens from this locality.
The birds procured by Natterer at Forte do Rio Branco in November (Pelz. Orn. Bras. p. 93),
as shown by one of them kindly lent to me by Dr. Lorenz of the Vienna Museum, turn out to be
T. gymnoplithalmus. The examples recorded from the Ucayali River and Upper Amazonia appear
to me to be referable to T. maculirostris.
A specimen said to have come from Cayenne is in the Sclater Collection.
Whether this is the Turdus olivaceus of Lafresnaye and d’Orbigny, from the province of Yungas
in Bolivia, I am unable to say, but Bolivian specimens are in the British Museum, and here the ranges
of T. leucomelas and T. maculirostris appear to coalesce.
Mr. W. H. Hudson (Argent. Orn. i. p. 1) gives the following notes on the species B “ The
Dusky Thrush is widely distributed in South America, and ranges as far south as Buenos Ayres,
where it is quite common in the woods along the Plata River. It is a shy forest-bird; a fruit- and
insect-eater; abrupt in its motions ; runs rapidly on the ground with back elevated, and at intervals
pauses and shakes its ta il; pugnacious in temper; strong on the wing, its flight not being over the
trees, but masked by their shadows. It can always be easily distinguished, even at a distance, from
other species by its peculiar short, metallic chirp—a melodious sound indicating alarm or curiosity,
and uttered before flight—in contrast to the harsh screams and chuckling notes of other Thrushes in
this district.
“ Whether it is a fine singer or not within the tropics I am unable to say, its vocal powers
having received no attention from the naturalists who have observed it. With us in the temperate
climate of Buenos Ayres, where it commences to sing in September, it has the finest song of any
bird I know, excepting only Mimus triurus. Like the English Song-Thrush, but unlike its near
neighbours the Red-bellied Thrush and the Magellanic Thrush, it perches on the summit of a tree
to sing. Its song is, however, utterly unlike that of the English bird, which is so fragmentary,
and, as Mr. Barrows describes it, made up of ‘ vocal attitudes and poses.’ The two birds differ
also in voice as much as in manner. The strains of the Dusky Thrush are poured forth in a
continuous stream, with-all the hurry and freedom of the Sky-Lark’s song; but though so rapidly
uttered, every note is distinct and clear, and the voice singularly sweet and far-reaching. At
intervals in the song there recurs a two-syllabled. note twice repeated, unlike in sound any othe
bird-music I have heard, for it is purely metallic, and its joyous bell-like £ te-ling te-ling ’ always
comes like a delightful surprise to the listener, being in strange contrast with the prevailing tone.
The song is altogether a very fine one, its peculiar charm being that it seems to combine two
opposite qualities of bird-music, plaintiveness and joyousness, in some indefinable manner. I have
never heard this species sing in a cage or anywhere near a human habitation; and it is probably
owing to its recluse habits that its excellent song has not been hitherto noticed. Azara perhaps
mistook the song of this species for that of Turdus rujiventris, a very inferior vocalist.
“ The nest is made in the centre of a thick bush or tree six or eight feet from the ground, and
is a deep elaborate structure, plastered inside with mud, and lined with soft dry grass. The
eggs are four in number, oblong: the ground-colour light blue, abundantly marked with reddish-
brown spots.
“ This Thrush has, I believe, a partial migration in Buenos Ayres. In the autumn and winter
I have frequently observed it in localities where it is never seen in summer.”
The accompanying observations are given by the late Mr. Henry Dumford in his paper on the
Birds of Buenos Ayres (Ibis, 1877, p. 166):—“ Resident. In the winter to a great extent
gregarious, and common always in the belt of trees and scrub which fringe the shore of the La Plata,
preferring low land to' a more elevated district. There is a fact about the note of this bird that I am
anxious to record. Everyone in England is familiar with the subdued but querulous chuckle of the
Blackbird, which it almost invariably utters before leaving the friendly shelter o f a thick bush. Now,
though Turdus leucomelas has scarcely any song, certainly nothing that can be compared with that of
a Blackbird, it has exactly this same peculiar note, and utters it under precisely the same conditions
as the Blackbird; and so much did this coincidence strike me, that I thought when I first heard the
sound that an escaped Blackbird was the author of it. I look upon this as one of the many isolated
facts which seem to prove descent from a common progenitor. Common at Baradero in April.”
Mr. Barrows (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, viii. p. 85, 1883) writes from Uruguay:—“ This bird
abounds at Concepcion all the year round, and was taken also at Buenos Aires. It was not
observed either at Azul or any of the points further south. It is found in the gardens of the town,
as well as in the depths of the swampy woods, but never seen far from leafy cover of some kind, and
does not appear at home on the ground. It is very unsuspicious, and is frequently caged and
becomes reconciled to its imprisonment, yet is not very musical. The nest is usually well hidden
among the tops of bushes or masses of twining plants, never more than ten feet from the ground,
and resembles in general the nest of our own Robin (T. migratorius), but is smaller and contains no
mud in its composition, so far as my observation goes. The eggs, commonly four, are splashed and
dotted with several shades of brown on a dirty green ground. Sets were taken through October and
November, and frequently the eggs of the Cowbird were found with them.”
Mr. O. Y. Aplin, in his paper on the Birds of Uruguay (Ibis, 1894, p. 161), observes:—“ I saw
one in the quinta at Santa Elena on the 22nd of October, just after my arrival, and before my
luggage, with my cartridges, had come up country, but did not meet with the adult again in that
neighbourhood ; however, on the 22nd of February, I shot a Thrush in nestling dress in thin monte
on the coast of the Monzon, which Mr. Sclater believes to be of this species. In the monte of the
Rio Negro I found the Dusky Thrush rather common, but excessively shy and retiring, and very
difficult to see—betraying its presence usually only by its low, sweet alarm-note, like that of our
Song-Thrush when disturbed among the fruit-trees. They were, not at that time (mid-December)
in song.”
Mr. E. W. White states that he found the species in the woods around the old Jesuit ruins in
Misiones. He says that it has a pleasant whistle and is often kept as a cage-bird.
Adult. General colour above dark olive-brown, with a slight wash of olive, especially towards
the rump and upper tail-coverts, the latter being dull sepia-brown like the tail, washed with dull
slaty-grey; wing-coverts like the back • bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills sepia-brown,
externally washed with ashy-olive; crown of the head and sides of face like the back, blackish in
front of the ey e ; the cheeks scarcely at all streaked with white; throat white, distinctly streaked
with rows of black triangular spots; the lower throat not spotted, so that there is a small patch of
plain white; fore-neck, breast, and sides of body dark ashy-brown, as also the thighs; abdomen and
under tail-coverts whitish, the latter with broad lateral edges of dark brown; axillaries and under
wing-coverts very pale buff, with only a faint tinge of orange, which also pervades the inner aspect
of the quills, which are dusky brown below: bill yellow; “ iris brown” (Burmeister). Total length
8-5 inches, culmen 0*9, wing 4-7, tail 3*6, tarsus 1*3.
The yellow bill is a sign of an old bird in nesting-plumage. The pale orange tint on the
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