of this species, according to Seebohm * (the only English
writer who, so far as I am aware, treats of it in detail
as a British bird), is in the valleys of the great rivers
Yenesay and Lena in Siberia, between lat. 67° and 68°,
and it also breeds in Japan. It winters in China,
Burma, Sumatra, and Java, and has once occurred in
the Andaman Islands. In the work from which I
quote the above localities will be found an account of
the writer’s personal acquaintance with this species,
which is too long to transcribe in extenso. It amounts
to his having occasionally met with this Thrush in
Siberia, near the village of Koorayika, on the Arctic
Circle, haunting birch-plantations; it seems that it is
an exceedingly wary bird, and Seebohm only succeeded
in shooting one specimen, a fine male in adult plumage.
It was, however, well known to the inhabitants as the
Black Thrush, or, I should rather say, by two Russian
words with that signification. These natives informed
the author that the bird was by no means uncommon
during the breeding-season at Toorokansk. It is said
to be possessed of a not very loud but sweet song, and
is a favourite cage-bird in Japan. Seebohm concludes
his description of the habits of the species with the
words “ Nothing whatever is known of its eggs or nest.”
The volume from which I am quoting is dated 1883,
and I am not aware of any information on the latter
particulars having been recorded since that time. This
Thrush is a very rare straggler into Europe, but
has been met with in various localities in Northern
Germany, in the Hartz Mountains, the island of Riigen,
France, Belgium, Italy, and Turkey.
* * British Birds,’ vol. i. pp. 204, 205.