Dr. Horsfield’s bird from Java, Turdus varius, measures
ten inches and three-quarters : the wing five inches and
four-eighths;—the first feather short; the second and sixth
equal; the third, fourth, and fifth also equal, and the longest
in the wing.
Mr. Bigge’s specimen is eleven inches and a half long :
the wing five inches and four-eighths ;—the first feather short;
the second as long as the sixth; the third, fourth, and fifth
of equal length, and the longest in the wing.
An Australian specimen, also in the Museum of the Zoological
Society, measures twelve inches in length : the wing
five inches and four-eighths;—th,e first feather short; the
second shorter than the sixth ; the third, fourth, and fifth
nearly equal, and the longest.
So much alike in their colour and markings are the
six birds just referred to, that one description would apply
to all: but in the relative size and structure of the wing,
particularly, it will be seen that Lord Malmesbury s Hampshire
Thrush, the Hamburgh specimen, and that from Japan,
appear to be identical; while that from Java, Mr. Bigge s
bird, and the specimen from Australia, appear also to be
identical.
In Lord Malmesbury’s Thrush the beak is two lines
shorter, and the tarsus one line shorter, than the same parts
in either of the Eastern specimens, all of which in these
particulars are very nearly alike. Mr. Gould remarks that
in his Hamburgh specimen also the beak was smaller than
those of the Eastern specimens.
The circumstance of the Japan bird occurring in three
different instances in Europe, is less remarkable than might
at first appear, when we remember that in the recently published
Supplement to the Land Birds of his Manual, M.
Teinminck has given a catalogue of the names of one hundred
and fourteen birds which are found both in Europe
w h i t e ’s t h r u s h . 187
and Japan j> that number of species in the two countries
being considered identical by this gentleman, who is one
of the best authorities as an Ornithologist in Europe. Of
these one hundred and fourteen birds common to Europe
and Japan, eighty-six are found in the British Islands.
Mr. Gould considers that the large size of the wing in this
new European Thrush indicates migratorial powers and
habits, and that it is in all probability dispersed over a great
part of southern Siberia. Should this eventually prove to
be the case, the southern migration of this bird is then nothing
more than that which is performed every year by the
Fieldfares and Redwings, two species so closely allied to
it as to belong to the same genus ; and these two Thrushes
breeding in June in the most northern parts of Norway
and Lapland, were found by Mr. Strickland in winter at
Smyrna, about three degrees farther south than the north
of Japan. Lord Malmesbury’s bird was shot on the 24th
of January, and proved to be a male. The Ornithologists
of this country are much indebted to his lordship for the
knowledge of this handsome addition to the list of British
Thrushes.
Of the habits of this species but little, I believe, is known.
The beak is dark brown, except the base of the under
mandible, which is pale yellow brown ; the space between
the beak and the eye pale wood-brown ; the irides hazel:
the feathers on the upper part of the head and neck yellow
brown, tipped with black; those of the back, scapulars, and
the upper tail-coverts, darker brown, with a crescentic tip
of black, the shaft of each feather yellow: the smaller wing-
coverts have broad pale yellow ends, the lateral webs black,
the shafts yellow brown; the greater wing-coverts dark
brown with light yellow brown ends, together forming two
oblique descending bars; the feathers of the spurious wing
are light yellow brown, tipped with black, forming an as