MER U LA IN T E RME D IA , Richmond.
CENTRAL-ASIAN BLACKBIRD.
Turdus merula (nee L.), Severtz. Turkest. Jevotn. p. 64 (1873).
Merula vulgaris (nec Selby), Scully, Str. F. iv. p. 139 (1876).
Merula merula (nec L.), Sharpe, Trans. Linn. Soc. (2) Zool. v. part 3, p. 72 (1889).
Merula maxima (nec Seebohm), C. Swinhoe, Ibis, 1882, p. 105; Pleske, Wiss. Result. Przew.
Reis. ii. p. 17 (1889); Sharpe, Sci. Results 2nd Yarkand Miss., Aves, p. 91 (1891).
Merula merula maxima (nec Seebohm), Stolzm. Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou, 1892, p. 402,1897, p. 74.
Merula merula intermedia, Richmond, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xviii. p. 585 (1895).
M. similis M. merulce, sed paullo major, et foemin& magis grisescente distinguenda.
T h e Blackbird of Central Asia has been admitted of late years to be somewhat different from the
common M. merula of Europe, but most writers, myself included, have naturally supposed that it was
identical with the Kashmir Blackbird. Mr. C. W. Richmond has, however, recently thrown a new
light on the subject, owing to the rediscovery, by that excellent naturalist Dr. W. L. Abbott, of the
adult M. maxima in the mountains of Central Kashmir. -The two specimens of M: maxima obtained
by Dr. Abbott so much exceed in their dimensions the Blackbirds of Central Asia, that Mr. Richmond
has separated the latter under the name of Merula merula intermedia.
Beyond its larger size, the male of the Central-Asian Blackbird presents no difference from
the male of the Common Blackbird of Europe, but the female is usually a greyer bird, and on
that account I should at once have been willing to recognize AT. intermedia, but for the fact that
Blackbirds having larger dimensions and grey females are found in other parts of the Western
Palaearctic Region, and in the same localities with these grey-plumaged females occur specimens
which cannot be separated from the hen Blackbirds of other parts of Europe.
In the British Museum the examples of M. intermedia tend to confirm Mr. Richmond’s
characters for the Eastern race of M. merula, and he is probably quite correct in his surmise that
M. maxima of Kashmir will be found to be a distinct resident form peculiar to the higher regions of
the last-named country.
The definition of the exact habitat of M. intermedia, however, is not so easy, for, as I have
pointed out in my article on M. merula, grey females are found in North-eastern Africa and
.Palestine, and the Blackbirds of Eastern Europe are larger, as a rule, than those of the Western part
of the' Continent. I t is therefore quite clear that the question of the races of M. merula is not
yet settled.
Meanwhile I must recognize Mr. Richmond’s name of M. intermedia for the Central-Asian
Blackbird. Its only known breeding-place is apparently in Turkestan (vide infra). Dr. Scully
found the species in Western Turkestan in winter and states that it migrated to the northward in
spring. Dr. Abbott’s specimens were obtained in the Thian-Shan Mountains in November, and
the Seebohm Collection contains examples procured by Przewalski in October and November in the
Thian-Shan range and at Aksu, the locality whence came Dr. Abbott’s type.
According to Dr. Pleske (Wiss. Result. Przew. Reis. ii. p. 17), Przewalski obtained the species
first on his journey to Lob-nor during the first half of September 1876, in the upper reaches of the