British Birds, but Mr. Howard Saunders duly mentions it in his second edition of the ‘ Manual ’
(p. 9). The specimen is in the Museum at Perth, not “ Edinburgh ” as Mr. Harting has it (Handb.
Brit. B. 1901, p. 347).
Seebohm gives a further note on Merula atrigularis in his ‘History of British Birds’
(i. p. 249):—“ I met with it twice in the valley of the Yenesay on my return journey from the
Arctic regions, between latitudes 60° and 68°, early in August; I found it a very noisy and active
bird. I was too late for eggs; but the not fully fledged young, three of which I secured, were a
source of great anxiety to their parents, whose alarm-notes resounded on the skirts of the forest on
every side. They principally frequented the neighbourhood of the villages on the banks of the river,
where the forest had been cut down for firewood, and clumps of small trees were scattered over the
rough pastures where the cattle of the peasants are turned out to graze in summer. They showed
a marked preference for the pines, and were very wary. The males kept out of gunshot; and I only
obtained one adult, a female.”
Mr. H. L. Popham, in his account of the birds observed on the Yenisei River (Ibis, 1898,
p. 494), writes:—“ The Black-throated Thrush appears to frequent the pine-forest only, and
does not seem to be very gregarious in breeding-habits, for, although several pairs were nesting in
the same locality, they were not by any means in colonies, like the Fieldfares. I obtained my first
specimen at Yeniseisk, but did not meet with this Thrush again until we came to Inbatskaya, where
I took five nests, each containing six eggs, which varied considerably. Two clutches have the
markings of the Mistle-Thrush, but the ground-colour is a deeper blu e ; other clutches are very
much of the type of the Blackbird, and in one of these latter a single egg has the markings of the
* Mistle-Thrush ’ type. The nests, composed of dry grass with a lining of mud and an inner lining of
broad dry grass, were all placed in small fir-trees close to the stem (except one, which was on the top
of a stump) at heights varying between three feet and six feet. In all cases both the parent birds
flew uneasily from tree to tree round the nest, constantly uttering their alarm-note, ‘ chit, chit, cheet.’
When singing, the male whistles a few notes at a time, somewhat like a Song-Thrush, with considerable
variation, but does not repeat the same phrase two or three times over as the latter does. The
Black-throated Thrush appears to be extremely local in the Valley of the Yenisei. The eggs measure
from 1*08 in. to 1*15 in. long by from ’77 in. to *84 in. broad.”
Specimens from Tomsk are in the Milan Museum (Martorelli, Ornis, 1901, p. 264), and
Seebohm believed that the species would be “ found on the Ob River in similar latitudes to those it
inhabited on the Yenisei, and in a similar climate in the pine-regions of the Himalayas and
Eastern Turkestan. I t winters in Western Turkestan, Baluchistan, and North India, occurring ort
migration as far eastwards as Lake Baikal, and in winter as far as Assam.
“ Severtzow says that it breeds in Eastern Turkestan in the cultivated districts, gardens, grassy
steppes, and salt plains, up to 4000 feet above the level of the se a; and there cannot be much doubt
that it breeds also at a considerable elevation in the pine-regions of the lofty Himalayas.”
With regard to the Tatter statement, I may remark that specimens from Native Sikhim were
obtained by the late Mr. Mandelli in the fullest breeding-plumage, but no eggs have ever been
known to be taken in these mountains, and the bulk of the individuals doubtless go further north
to breed.
Dr. Otto Finsch, during his travels in Siberia and Central Asia, found the Black-throated
Ouzel on the Arcad Mountains in May. Here it was nesting on the steppe, as the whole region
was destitute of trees. I t was met with on the 7th of June at the Marakal Lake, and also at
Obdorsk, where Count Zeil obtained a young moulting bird on the 19th of August (Ibis, 1877,
p.50).
According to Taczanowski (Faun. Orn. Sibir. Orient, i. p. 305) its range extends to the
southern Baikal region in Eastern Siberia, and it may nest to the north of that country. Dybowski
and Godlewski have several times found it near the southern part of the lake during the spring
migration, when it appears in the first days of April, either solitary or mixed with bands of
T. ruficollis. In one isolated instance they noticed a specimen in the last days of March, but after
the end of April all disappeared.
'D r. Oustalet (Nouv. Arch. Mus. (3) v. p. 150, 1893) states that five specimens were obtained
during the expedition of M. Bonvalot and Prince Henry of Orleans, viz.: a male at Kuldja, in
Chinese Turkestan, in September; two females in September at Tsanju, in the Tian-shan
Mountains ; a female at Aktarma ; and another female in October at Arkan on one of the branches
of the Tarim River.
In his account of the scientific results of Przewalski’s journeys through Central Asia, Dr. Pleske
says that specimens were obtained by this celebrated explorer at several places, and he gives the
following summary of Przewalski’s observations on the species:—“ During the journey to Lob-nor,
the Black-breasted Ouzel was found during the autumn migration in September 1876 in the valleys
of the Kung and the Zanma, and in the middle of October on the Tian-shan, in the ravines of the
Balantai-gol and Chaidu-gol. At the end of September a pair was seen on the Juldus. These
Thrushes inhabited the wooded islands of the above-named rivers, and frequented the thick bushes
of Viburnum opulus and Crataegus in flocks of from seven to twenty individuals. In the valleys of
the Lower Tarim the species wintered in masses, and affected the districts in which the JEleagnus
shrubs were plentiful, and on the berries of these they principally fed. In the spring, in the same
districts, the Black-throated Ouzels were observed only once or twice, and were tired with their
migration-flight, as the majority had already retired to more northern regions to nest. During
the autumn migration the species was encountered in greater numbers towards the end of August
and the beginning of September in the Talki Ravine, on the Ssairam-nor, and singly in the western
and mountainous parts of Dsungaria.
“ At the end of February 1879 Przewalski found four of these Thrushes near Saissansk,
which were frozen up for some ten days during a severe and icy snowstorm. The poor birds,
finding no shelter on the open steppe, took refuge on the window-shutter of the post-house
and were frozen to death. In March the species became common on migration near Saissansk
and on the Ulungur Lake, and also arrived in small parties on; the Urungu River and in the
southern Altai. At the beginning of August, Thrushes, apparently of this species, were observed on
migration on the Tian-shan Mountains, also in Zaidam in the first half of September, and in Northern
Thibet in the latter half of the same month.
“ In the spring of 1885 the first individuals were observed in April on the Tschertsch-Darja
and in the Tschertschian Oasis. On the Chotan-Darja the autumn migration began in the middle
of September, and increased in volume at the end of the month and the early part of October.
A certain number apparently passed the winter here.”
I t should be noted that Dr. Pleske, in the work above quoted, gives a minute account of
hybrids between M. ruficollis and the present species; but in the large series of specimens procured
by the brothers Grum-Grzimailo on the northern slopes of the Eastern Thian-shan, and from the
districts of Turfan, Hami, Kansou, &c., he was much surprised not to find a single hybrid (Mel.
Biol. xiii. p. 291).
In Central Asia, Severtzow states that the species breeds in Eastern Turkestan, where it also
partially winters, but in Western Turkestan it appears in winter only. During the second Yarkand
Mission many specimens were obtained. Dr. Stoliczka observes that the species was very numerous