breast, and passing into a dull white on the belly; vent and
under tail-coverts brilliant king’s yellow; legs, toes and
claws black. The whole length of the bird seven inches and
a h a lf; the wing, from the anterior joint to the end of the
longest quill-feather, three inches and a h a lf; the first quill-
feather very short, about one inch in length; the second
three-quarters of an inch longer than the first, hut shorter
than the third : the fourth feather the longest in the wing ;
the tail very slightly forked.
The birds constituting the genus Pycnonotus, regarding
the present species as its type, are not very nearly allied to
the Thrushes; and modern ornithologists generally keep
them in a separate family or sub-family, which according
to usage should apparently take its title from Temminck’s
genus Ixua * (commonly but inaccurately spelt Ixos) as the
first belonging to it that received a name. The group contains
a good many species, inhabiting various parts of Africa
and Asia, and among them are the Bulbuls so celebrated in
eastern song. One species, P. barbatus (Desfontaines)—the
I. obscurus of Temminck—is found in North-west Africa and,
as is said, in Spain; while it has been stated (Zool. s.s.
p. 228) to have occurred in England. I t may be easily distinguished
from the present bird by wanting the yellow vent.
Three “ Palestine Nightingales ” which were no doubt examples
of P. xanthopygius (recently asserted by Drs. Finsch
and Hartlaub to be identical with the widely spread African
P. nigricans) are said by Thompson (B. Ireld. i. p. 154) to
have been obtained for the aviary of the Zoological Garden
at Dublin. This species differs from T. capensis by being-
more slate-coloured above and having the abdomen white;
hut the fact of its introduction to Ireland as a cage-bird
suggests a possible explanation of the extraordinary occurrence
of Dr. Burkitt’s example near Waterford.
* This group, established in 1825, was no doubt intended (Recueil des
Oiseaux, livr. 64) to be identical with the Pycnonotus of Kuhl, with whose views,
though then unpublished, Temminck was clearly acquainted ; but as he selected
for the type of the former a species which is usually and justifiably considered to
be generically separable from that of the latter, the two names do not clash, and
there seems to be no reason why both should not stand—each in a restricted sense.
T u r d u s v a r iu s , Pallas.*
WHITE’S THRUSH.
Turdus Whitei t.
T urdus, Linnceus%.—Bill moderate, straight, convex above ; point of the
upper mandible compressed, notched and slightly decurved ; gape furnished with
a few hairs. Nostrils basal, lateral, oval, partly closed by a membrane. Wings
with the first feather very short ; the second shorter than the third or fourth,
which are generally the longest. Feet with the tarsus longer than the middle
toe ; the outer toe connected with the middle toe at the base.
B y the kind permission of the late Lord Malmesbury, I
am enabled to give a figure from a male Thrush shot by him
at Heron Court, near Christchurch, January the 24th, 1828,
as first announced by Mr. E yton; who, believing it to be a
new species, conferred upon it, in honour of Gilbert White
of Selborne, the names above cited; and his lordship allowed
* Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica, i. p. 449 (1811).
+ Eyton, Rarer Brit. Birds, p. 92 (1836).
i Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 291 (1766).