TURDUS CONFINIS {Baird)
ST.-LUCAS THRUSH.
Turdus confinis, Baird, Review Amer. B. p. 29.(1864).
Turdus migratorius, var. confinis, Coues, Key N. Amer. B. p. 72 (1872).
Merula confinis, Ridgw. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. iii. p. 166 (1880).
T. gutture striato: pedibus fuscis, minime flavis: supra pallidb brunnescenti-schistaceus: subtus pallide
ochrascenti-fulvus : hypochondriis minime rufis.
T his very distinct species was discovered by the late John Xantus at Todos Santos in Lower California,
in 1860 (Baird, Review Amer. B. p. 29), and in 1881 the type specimen still remained unique in
the U.S. National Museum at Washington (Ridgw. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. iv. p. 207). In 1883,
however, Mr. Ridgway received specimens from Mr. L. Belding’s expedition to Lower California,
and gave a full description of two birds procured at Laguna in February of that year (Proc. U.S.
Nat. Mus. vi. p. 158). He remarks that “ the characters of this species, as originally defined by
Professor Baird, are not only quite constant, but very pronounced, so that there need be no further
reason for denying it the specific rank to which it is clearly entitled.”
Mr. L. Belding (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. vi. p. 364) says that upon meeting with the first pines
in the Victoria Mountains in Lower California he found this Thrush, “ but only about a dozen of
them were seen, and these were all on the Laguna trail. About half were found singly, one as low
as 2500 feet above sea-level.” He adds:—“ Mr. Cipriano Fisher, an American, who had often hunted
deer at Laguna, informed me that these Thrushes were sometimes abundant there. This may be the
case when the berries of the California holly ,(.Heteromeles), which grows abundantly in the
neighbourhood, are ripe.
“ The type specimen, shot by Xantus at Los Todos in summer, may have been a straggler from
the mountains. Possibly there was a mistake made in recording it, as I suspect was the case with
the Oreortyx picta plumifera (see Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. v. p. 533), which is not at present a bird of
Cape St. Lucas; and this leads me to remark that I consider the term ‘ Cape species,’ when it covers
all the birds from La Paz and south of it, an inappropriate one—inappropriate for the good reason
that so few of the so-called Cape species really occur at Cape St. Lucas—its only special advantage
as a collecting ground being its well-sheltered harbour, which affords good opportunities for shooting
marine speci'es.”
A specimen of this Thrush has been said to have been obtained at Hayward’s in California
(A. O. U. Check-list N. Amer. B. 2nd ed. p. 320).
Adult male.. General colour above slaty-grey, slightly paler on the lower back, rump, and upper
tail-coverts; wing-coverts and quills dull sepia-brown, externally slaty-grey, more hoary on the edges
of the quills; tail dark sepia-brown, margined with slaty-grey, the outermost feather narrowly fringed
with white at the end; crown of head slaty-grey like the back; lores blackish, surmounted by a
narrow line of white, which extends above the ey e ; eyelid white above and below; feathers below
the eye blackish, shading off gradually into slaty-grey on the ear-coverts; sides of neck clear
slaty-grey; cheeks blackish, slightly varied with white streaks; throat white, streaked with rows of
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