A single specimen was obtained by Von Schrenk in an oak-forest at Aua, in tbe Ussuri country,
on the 21st of August, and Przewalski includes the species in his list of Ussun birds, but
Taczanowski, in the above-mentioned work, suggests that M. hortulorum may have been mistaken
for M. chrysolaus. t
The present species■ visits Southern China, Formosa, and Hainan in winter; and Mr. Styan
writes (Ibis, 1891, p. 832);:— “ The birds of this species which winter in South China cross from
the mountainous provinces of Fokien and Chekiang to breed in Japan, some, according to David,
travelling as far as the Amoor. Swinhoe gives its range in China from ‘Hainan to Pekin,’ m
which case some individuals must surely pass through the Yangtse Valley on migration. I have,
however, never met with them, and insert the species in the doubtful list.
In Formosa Swinhoe observed many of the present species between February and April,
hut believed them all to be on migration. As, however, he occasionally observed them m pairs,
he suggested that they might breed on the island (Ibis, 1863, p. 276). He found a small party
of these Thrushes on the 6th of March, in a wood on the Chinlan Eiver, N.E. Hainan (Ibis,
1S70, p, 248).
Besides the islands of Formosa and Hainan it also visits the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
Here Whitehead met with the species between the 17th of December- and the 24th of January
on the summit of Mount Data, in the highlands of Lepanto in North Luzon, and he obtained
several specimens; it was mingled with the flocks of Merula, obscurct.
Few notes on the habits of this Ouzel have been published, but it seems to be similar to a Redwing
in its ways and is said to have a sweet song.
According to Seebohm, the nest is made of much coarser materials than that of Merula cardis,
and is composed of twigs bound together with long fibres of grass. I t is placed in bushes. Eggs
of this species in the Fryer collection resemble finely streaked examples of those of the Blackbird.
Jouy says that the nests found by him on Fuji-yama were similar to those of M. cardis, but
composed of coarser material, and instead of being covered with moss, they were bound together
with long fibres of grass. One nest had a piece of straw-rope and a bit of old blue cotton cloth
in it, such as is used by the natives in making sandals or “ waxajies.”
The eggs are described by Jouy as “ pale bluish, blotched and speckled all over with brown
and filaceous; they average slightly smaller than M. cardis, being about 27 mm. by 20 mm.”
Adult male. General colour above russet olive-brown, the wing-coverts like the ba ck ; -
bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills light sepia-brown, externally ashy-brown, the inner
secondaries externally russet-brown like the back; tail-feathers ashy-brown, washed on the edges
with olive-brown, the outer feather edged with white along the tip of the inner web; crown of head
a little greyer than the back; the lores, tides of face, ear-coverts, and throat blackish, shading
off behind the ear-coverts into the brown colour of the sides of the neck, the lower throat being
also browner and shading off into the orange-chestnut of the fore-neck and chest; the sides of the
body also bright orange-chestnut; centre of breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts pure white,
the latter with rusty-brown edges to the feathers; axillaries and under wing-coverts pale ashy-grey,
with a faint Whitish edging, the coverts near the edge of the wing slightly tinged with rufous:
“ bill d u s k y brown, the lower mandible yellow; eyelid yellow; feet brighter yellow” {Holst). Total
length 9‘5 inches, culmen 0’9, wing 5*15, tail 3*3, tarsus 1*2.
Adult female. Differs from the male in having the head russet olive-brown like the rest of
the upper parts; there is no black on the sides of the face and throat, the ear-coverts being dusky
brown, the lores also dusky blackish, with a fine of cinnamon-buff above; the throat is white,
distinctly streaked with dusky brown and showing a broader malar streak on each side of the throat,
the fore-neck, chest, and sides of body orange-rufous, the former somewhat overshaded with brown;
centre ef breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts pure white as in the male, the latter with
brown edges to the feathers; under wing-coverts and axillaries duller ashy-grey than in the male,
with a slight orange wash on the coverts. Total length 9 inches, wing 4 85.
I t should be noted that a bird from Hakodadi, determined by Henry Whitely as a female, is .
exactly like the adult male.
The young male after its first moult resembles the adult female, and has the throat white
streaked with brown. The orange-colour on the sides of the body is lighter than in the adults and
w.lmea more to a cinnamon tint. A-male procured by Mr. Binger at Nagasaki in February has
the throat dusky brown only at the base, which seems to indicate that the .fully adult plumage is not
assumed till after the second moult. Young birds can always be recognized by the pale buff tips to
the greater wing-coverts.
Young. Brown like the old female, but having a broad eyebrow of. cinnamon-buff, the feathers
of the ear-coverts and the entire upper surface mesially streaked with buff, and the greater wing-
coverts having triangular spots of the same colour at the tip ; throat bufiy-white, without dark
stripes; chest and sides of body cinnamon-buff, the breast and abdomen white, all these underparts
largely spotted with dusky brown; under wing-coverts and axillaries dull ashy-grey.
The_descriptions are taken from specimens in the Seebohm Collection; those of the male and
female from specimens collected near Yokohama by Mr. Harry Pryer, and that of the young bird
from a specimen obtained by Blakiston near Hakodadi. The figures are drawn from a male from
Yokohama and a female from Formosa in the Seebohm Collection. [B. B. S.]