1NSESS0RES.
DENTIROSTRES.
M ERULID/E.
W H IT E ’S THRUSH.
Turdus Whitei, White’s Thrush, E yton, !> >> >> RareT Brit. Birds, p. 92. >, Gould, Birds of Europe, pt. xxi.
B y the kind permission of the Earl of Malmesbury, I am
enabled to give a figure from that extremely beautiful
Thrush which was shot by his lordship himself on his estate
at Heron Court, near Christchurch, in January 1828;
and his lordship has very kindly allowed me the free use of
this specimen, to make a close examination of it, and by
taking the measurements of the various parts of the bird,
to institute a comparison between it and two others which
have been brought to this country from the East, one of
them found in Japan, the other in Java ; specimens of the
first of which are in the Museum of the Zoological Society,
and of the second in the Museum of the Honourable East
India Company. The measurements of this latter specimen
I have obtained through the kindness of Dr. Horsfield, by
whom this species was first made known. To Mr. Jesse I
am indebted for an introduction to his friend Mr. Bigge
of Hampton Court, who has allowed me the use cf a specimen
of a Thrush which appears to be identical with Dr.
Horsfield’s Thrush from Java, and also with specimens
from Australia, which are certainly very closely allied to
the Javanese Thrush. Mr. Bilge’s bird is said to have
been shot in the New Forest, Hampshire, by one of the
forest-keepers, who parted with it to a bird-preserver at
Southampton, of whom Mr. Bigge bought it for his own
collection. The measurements of these various examples
will enable the reader to decide on the species.
Lord Malmesbury’s bird measures twelve inches and a
half. The length of the wing from the carpal joint to the
end of the longest primary, six inches and three-eighths ;
the first feather of the wing-primaries is very short; the
second and fourth equal in length; the third feather the
longest in the wing.
The Japan Thrush measures twelve inches in its whole
length : the wing six inches and four-eighths ;—the first feather
very short; the second a little longer than the fifth ;
the third and fourth feathers equal, and the longest.
Two specimens of a Thrush in every respect the same
as the Japan Thrush have been shot on the banks of the
Elbe. One of these was lately obtained in a fresh state by
Mr. Gould when at Hamburgh, and is figured in the twenty-
first part of his beautiful work on the Birds of Europe.
This specimen, with a wing rather longer than the Japanese
bird, is now in the collection of T. B. L. Baker, Esq. of
Hardwicke Court, Gloucester.