GEOC ICHLA D A V IS ON I .
GEOCICHLA DAYISONI [Hume)
D A V ISO N ’S G B .O U N D -T H IU JSH .
Turdus sibirious (nee Gm.), Temm. Man. d’Om. Hi. p. 98 (1835); id. & Schlegel, Faun. Jap.,
Aves, p. 60, pi. xxxi. (1847).
Turdulus davisoni, Hume, Stray Feathers, v. p. 63 (1877).
Turdulus sibiricus (nec Gm.), Hume, Stray Feathers, y. p. 136 (1877).
Turdus, sp. incogn., Blakiston & Pryer, Ibis, 1878, p. 241.
G . similis G . sibirica•, sed saturatior, abdomine pectori oonoolore, mmimfc albo, distingnenda.
The Japanese, form o f the Siberian Ground-Thrush was discovered by the Siebold expedition to
Japan some time between the years 1823 and 1830 ; hut its distinctness from <?. sihnca was not
recognized until 1877, when an example procured by Davison on the slopes of Mooleyit m
Tenasserim was described under the name of Turdulus davisoni (Hume, Stray Feathers, v. p. ).
This example is now in the British M u s e u m a n d i s i d e n t i c a l w i t h J a p a n e s e examples; hut H u m e
seems very soon to have convinced himself that it was only a very old example of the Siberian race,
and on page 136 of the same volume he records it as Turdulus sibiricus (Pallas). In 18(8 a full
description of this old male bird is given (Hume and Davison, Stray Feathers, vi. p. 255).
l i i h e r e is no authentic record of the occurrence of this species on the island of Yezzo. (Blakiston,
Amended List of the Birds of Japan, p. 58); hut it breeds in some .numbers on the mountains of
the main island of Japan. On Fuji-Yama it nests at an elevation of 5000 feet (Jouy; Proc. U.S.
Nat. Mus. 1883, p. 278). I have a large series from the Yokohama market (Seebohm, Birds o t e
Japanese Empire, p. 44). .
I have only seen three examples which have been procured outside Japan, v i z . t h e type ot
Turdulus davisoni, horn Mooleyit, and a male and female procured in March by Major Wardlaw-
Ramsay at Kareen-nee, 2500 feet above sea-level (Walden, inBlyth’s Mammals and Birds of Burmah,
p. 100). These three examples are in the British Museum.
It is needless to add that nothing is known of the routes of migration of this species. Of its
habits we know nothing, except that Messrs. Blakiston and Pryer state that the species is a
cage-bird with the Japanese, and is said to have a sweet but not very loud song (Ibis, 1878, p. )•
U davisoni appears to differ from G. sibirica in three or four points. In the first place, the
Japanese birds have longer tails in both sexes—
Japan: 6 3*75 to 3*4; $ 3*66 to 3*5.
Siberia, &c.: c? 3*4 to 3*1; J 3T5 to 3*1.
They have also longer wings—
Japan: <? 5'1 to 4*75 ; $ 4*9 to 4*75.
Siberia, &c.: 4*75 to 4*4 ; $ 4*4 to 4*35.
The Japanese birds are darker, especially on the crown, and they have much less white on the
tips of the outer tail-feathers. Immature birds from Japan have some white on the belly, hut in
fully adult examples the white is confined to the feathers round the vent, which appears never to he
the case in Siberian examples.
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