' NAUMANN’S OUZEL.
Turdus naumanni, Temm. Man. d’Orn. i. p. 170 (1S20).
Turdus fuscatus (nec Pall.), Radde, Reis, im Süd. v. Ost-Sibir. ii. Taf. vii. fig. a (1863: hybrid!).
Turdus rufieollis (nec Pall.), Radde, t. c. Taf. viii. fig. a, (1863).
Turdus abreTnianus, Dybowski, J . f. O. 1876, p. 193.
Merula naumanni, Seebohm, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. v. p. 264 (1881).
M. rostro fusco, mandibulft flavä: caudä r u f ä : hypochondriis rufo maculatis, pectore concoloribus.
Naümann’s Thrush is a very distinct species, and it is a little difficult to understand why it should
ever have been the subject of controversy. I t can be distinguished at almost any age by the rufous
sides of the body. This character distinguishes it from M. rufieollis and M. atrigularis, with
neither of which does it appear to hybridize. The rufous spots of the back, more or less concealed,
are another character of M. naumanni. The only sign of crossing with another species of Ouzel is
an occasional individual which bears traces of hybridization with M. fuscata.
The present species, as Taczanowski remarks (Faun. Orn. Sibir. Orient, p. 299), has a very wide
distribution in Eastern Siberia, and passes the winter in the south of Russian Manchuria, in Corea,
and also in China; in Mongolia it is only a bird of passage in small numbers.
The following information is taken from Taczanowski’s work on the Ornithology of Eastern
Siberia:—“ MM. Dybowski and Godlewski have found it everywhere on Lake Baikal, in Dauria, on
the Amur, in the Ussuri country, and on the coast of the Sea of Japan, being everywhere common.
Its ways are similar to those of M. fuscata, excepting that the migration en masse takes place some
days later than in that species; it is, moreover, rather more shy, and its song, though similar, has
always something slightly different in the utterance.
“ In autumn it is seen on rare occasions in Dauria and on the southern part of Lake Baikal,
where it arrives in the first days of October. None of the travellers who have visited the portion of
Eastern Siberia enclosed between the southern Baikal region and the coast of the Japanese Sea have
ever found this Thrush nesting in any part of this entire area, and it is therefore- evident that
it must go more to the north to breed in the great forests, and perhaps it may nest in small numbers
in the wooded mountains of Dauria and the neighbourhood of Lake Baikal. On the coast of
the Japanese Sea some of these birds pass the winter in the brush-wood along the streams or
on the banks of the rivers, but they are also often met with on the islands near the coast,
such as Poutiatin, Askold, and others.
“ According to Przewalski, this Thrush arrives in spring in the Ussuri country in the second
half of March, and continues passing till the middle of May; in autumn it repasses again in
October, but on the coast of the Japanese Sea he met with solitary individuals up to the beginning of
December. Janskowski and Kalinowski have observed it there throughout the winter.”
In the Seebohm Collection there is a large series of. specimens from the mouth of the
Amur, procured by the brothers Dörries.