fuscatus in the Schara-chada Mountains of S E. Mongolia during migration. At Lake Ilanka they
migrated in April and the beginning of May, usually in company with T. naumanni, like the latter
not staying to breed, but going north for that purpose.” On the 27th of September, 1884, he
obtained a young specimen, apparently migrating, on the Naidshin-gol, in Southern Zaidam (Pleske,
Wissensch. Bcsult. Przew. Beis. i. p. 7, 1889).
Swinhoe gives the range of this species in China as from Pekin to Amoy, as well as Formosa,
extending westwards to Szechuen (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 366). Abbé David records it as very common
throughout China during half of the year, travelling in flocks like M. naumanni, and often mixed
with the latter species (David & Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 155). Near Amoy, Swinhoe speaks of it as
the commonest Thrush in winter (Ibis, 1S60, p. 56). In the Lower Yangtse Valley Mr. F._ W.
Styan records the Dusky Thrush as a winter visitant, arriving in the first week in November and
remaining till the middle of April, and he has met with it in Kiukiang as late as the 26th of
the latter month. He states that it sometimes associates in flocks with M. naumanni, and prefers
the fir-woods on the lower slopes and at the bases of the hills to the open country (Ibis, 1891,
pp. 319, 333). Mr. J. D. La Touche says that it was extremely abundant at the end of February and
throughout March at Foochow (Ibis, 1887, p. 217), but was rare as a winter visitant. One was shot
in the Peling country in January, but he did not observe it at Swatow (Ibis, 1892, pp. 407, 413).
Ih e species was obtained by Mr. Berezowski in Gan-su (Berez, & Bianchi, Exped. Gan-su,
p. 102, 1891), and Capt. \Vingate procured a specimen near Pu-an-ting, in West Kweichu, in
January 1899 (Ogilvie-Grant, Ibis, 19U0, p. 587). In Burma it has been met with by Colonel
V ardlaw-Bamsay at Toungngoo, but it is rare in the Assamese Provinces. Mr. Stuart Baker says
that he has only twice seen the species in Northern Cachar, two female birds having been obtained
at a height- of 3000 feet (J. Bomb. Soc. N. H. ix. p. 130). Spécimens procured at Shillong and
Dibrugarh by Mr. J. C.ockburn are in the Hume Collection (Hume, Str. F. xi. p. 130, 1888).
Colonel Godwin-Austen records the species from Harmutti in the Dafla Hills (J. A. S. Beng. xlv.
p. 72, 1376), and also from the Japvo Peak of the Burrail range, at an elevation of-nearly
11,000 feet (op. cit. xliii. p. 159). I t also extends its range into the Eastern Himalayas, as
Hodgson obtained a specimen in Nepal, but one named M. fuscata from the Bhotan Dooars, in
the Hume Collection, is referred by Mr. Oates to M. atrigularis (Faun. Brit. Ind., Birds, ii. p. 1 2 9 ff|
The Dusky Ouzel has not yet been detected in the British Isles, but it has occurred in many
of the countries of Europe. Professor Martorelli, in his essay on the occurrence of the Thrushes of
Siberia within European limits, gives a list of the occurrences of Merula fuscata in the European
area (Omis, 1901, pp. 255—258). I t would seem that the species has occurred in the following
countries of the Western Palæarctic Begion :—South of France, September 1845, December 1856
( Jauiert et Barthélemy-Lapommeraye) ; Bussia, near Moscow, August 30, 1865 (Tacz. Faune Orn.
Sibir. Orient, p. 294); Bergamo, Lombardy, February 18,189.3 (Mus. Arrigoni degli Oddi). To
these records may be added a male bird shot at Badda in Chianti (Tuscany) on the 25th of
November, 1879, and now in the collection of Italian birds in the Florence Museum (Giglioli,
Ibis, 1881, p. 197). Specimens from the south of France are in the Marseilles Museum (Eagle
Clarke, Ibis, 1895, p. 184). There is also a young bird recorded by GStke from Heligoland,
caught in October 1880 (Vogelw. Helgol. p. 256, 1891 ; Seebohm, Ibis, 1892, p. % Dr. Fatio
mentions a specimen in the Frey-Hérosé collection in the Museum of Aarau in Switzerland, which is
"believed to have been taken in that country (Faune Vertébr. Suisse, ii. p. 350, 1899);.' It- -has
occurred more than once in Germany, but apparently never in France (of. Dresser, B. Eur.
ii. p. 64).
Professor Collett has recorded the occurrence of the species in Norway (Om. Jahrb. i. p. 37,
1890), and Baron Snouckaert van S.chauberg mentions the capture of a specimen on the 20th
of November, 1899, near Veenwouden, in the province of Friesland, in Holland (Orn. MB. viii.
p. 18, 1900).
The habits of the Dusky Thrush appear to resemble those of Turdus iliacus, but Captain
Blakiston compares them with those of the Mistle-Thrush of Europe, and says that the ‘ note of
recognition is a similar kind of squeak ” (Ibis, 1862, p. 319). The nests found by Mr. H . L. Popham
in the valley of the Yenesei were generally placed in small isolated trees, and rarely on the ground,
though none were more than two feet above it. “ Three clutches of my eggs, * he observes, “ have
markings of the Fieldfare’s type j three others much resemble the ordinary type of the Blackbird’s,
but one is rather browner in markings than the other two; in one of these latter a single egg
is of the Fieldfare’s type, but darker in ground-colour” (Ibis, 1898, p. 493). Some figures
of the eggs taken by Mr. Popham have been figured by Mr. Dresser in the ‘ Ib is ’ for 1901
(p. 445, pi. ix. figs. 1-4).
Adult male in breeding-plumage. General colour above dusky brown, the feathers washed
with vinous chestnut, which colour predominates over the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts;
Wing-coverts like the hack; quills sepia-brown, the secondaries externally edged with rufous; tail
blackish, the feathers slightly edged with rufous near the base; crown of head and ear-coverts
blackish, with a few remains of lighter margins to the feathers ; a broad eyebrow, cheeks, throat,
and under surface of the body white; a narrow moustachial line of tiny triangular black spots,
fore-neck and chest nearly uniform black, all the feathers of the sides of the body mottled
with black centres; under tail-coverts centred with vinous-brown; axillaries and under wing-
coverts vinous-chestnut, with hoary-white margins ; quills dusky below, pale chestnut for two-thirds
of the inner web. Total length 8 inches, culmen 0‘8o, wing 5'0, tail 2’9, tarsus 1‘25.
Adult female in breeding-plumuge. Differs from the male in having less black on the
fore-neck and chest, these parts having black centres to the feathers like the flanks. Total
length 7-8 inches, wing 5‘0, tail 3’2, tarsus T25. “ Bill horny black, except the basal three-fourths
of upper tomium, and lower mandible, except tip, pale orange; feet pale greyish-brown; iris dark
brown” (L. Stejneger).
Adult in winter plumage. Similar to the summer plumage, but obscured by dusky ashy-brown
edges to the feathers of the upper parts, which are consequently not so rufous; the greater
wing-coverts and quills broadly edged with rufous, the primaries bordered with white, especially
near the extreme base, forming a small alar speculum; eyebrow, sides of face, cheeks, and
throat pale fawn-colour, with a moustachial streak of black and a few scattered black spots ;
remainder of under surface white, with more or less distinct black centres to the feathers of
the fore-neck, chest, and sides of body.
Young after first moult. Similar to the winter plumage of the adults, but with a good deal of
grey on the chest, which has numerous small triangular black spots, which are similarly distributed
on the sides of the breast; the throat buff, distinctly varied with triangular spots of black.
Nestling. Head blackish, as also the ear-coverts; the back ochreous-buff, mottled with broad
blackish edges to the feathers ; the wing-coverts longitudinally centred and the quills broadly edged
with rufous-buff; under surface of body white, the chest washed with ochre, all the under surface
spotted with black ends to the feathers.
The male and female described were collected by Seebohm in the valley of the \enesei> in
lat. 66£°, oh the 10th of June, 1877. The male is figured, with a nestling bird obtained in the same