letely barred. In Northern Australia, another species occurs—
the recently-described T. iodurus (Gould), which differs from
T. lunulatus by its second primary not being shorter than
its sixth, as well as by the prevailing tin t of its back and
tail being more rufous. The distinguishing characters of
these species are here expressly shewn, because examples of
one or the other of them are constantly palmed off by dealers
as specimens of the true White’s Thrush, and the examination
and comparison of a very large series—consisting of
those contained in the British and Cambridge Museums,
and the collections of Messrs. Dresser, Sharpe, Swinhoe and
Gould, Canon Tristram, and Lord Walden, which have been
most kindly placed at the Editor’s service, have enabled him
to point out the specific differences as above given with
some degree of assurance. Of the other allied species it
is unnecessary to say anything here, as they are not likely to
be taken even by a casual observer for T. varius.
I t will be observed that no notice has here been taken of
a Thrush mentioned in former editions of this work as being
the property of Mr. Bigge, then of Hampton Court, but now
of Debden Hall, Essex; who, about the year 1825, bought
it of a bird-stuffer at Southampton. This specimen was
said to have been shot in the New Forest by one of the
keepers. I t was unfortunately sold in 1849 with the rest of
Mr. Bigge’s collection, and that gentleman, though he has
most obligingly made every enquiry, has failed to trace it.
I t is evident that it was not a White’s Thrush, for, as described
in former editions of this work, it had the second
primary as long as the sixth, a character which equally
precludes it, in the Editor’s belief, from having been an
example of Horsfield’s T hrush; while he has been very
kindly informed by its former possessor that, though he had
no reason to doubt the bird-stuffer’s story, the specimen,
when shewn to Mr. Gould, who still remembers the fact,
was found by him to have its head stuffed with wool, as was
often the ease with bird-skins prepared in Australia. On
the whole, therefore, it seems not improbable that though
no fraud may have been intended, the specimen had been
brought from that country, and is most prudently to bo
omitted from further consideration. I t must, however, be
remarked, that the Museum at Lund, according to Prof.
Nilsson, contains an example of the Australian species said
to have been killed in Funen, but as it is known to have
passed through a dealer’s hands in Hamburg, there is here
also good reason to suspect a mistake.
The bill of White’s Thrush is dark brown, except the base
of the lower mandible, which is pale yellow-brown ; the
space between the bill 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 tips, the webs
black, the shafts yellow-brown; the greater wing-coverts
dark brown with light yellow-brown tips, together forming
two obliquely descending bars ; the feathers of the spurious
wing are light yellow-brown, tipped with black, forming an
ascending oblique bar ; the wing-feathers pale brown on the
outer web, brownish-black on the inner web, with dark-brown
tips, the shafts black : the four middle tail-feathers uniform
pale brown: the remaining ten darker in the webs, but
lighter at the ends, and of these the two outer pairs are the
lightest. The chin and throat are white ; from the lower edge
of the under mandible descends a narrow dark streak; the
neck, breast, and all the lower surface, white, tinged on the
breast and flanks with yellow-brown, all the feathers having
a black crescent-shaped t ip ; before the wing on each side,
the brown colour of the back extends a little forward toward
the breast; anterior lo-wer wing-coverts white at the base
and black at the tip ; lower tail-coverts white ; tail beneath
greyish-brown, the feathers with white shafts; legs and toes
pale brown, the claws rather lighter.
Lord Malmesbury’s bird measures twelve inches and a
half, the wing from the carpal joint to the end of the longest
primary, six inches and three eighths; the second and fourth
primaries equal in length ; the third the longest in the wing.
vol. I. L L