TURDUS GOULDL J. Verr.
Gould’s Thrush.

Merula Gouldii, J. Verr. Nouv. Archiv. du Mus., tom. vi. Bull. p. 34, & tom. vii., Bull. p. 32.—David, ibid.,
tom. vit, Bull p. 6.

 

Tue French savant, M. Jules Verreaux, having named this Thrush after. myself, I should be wanting in
courtesy were I not to acknowledge that I duly appreciate the compliment he thereby intended to convey,
although the bird is an inhabitant of some of the distant provinces of Thibet, a country too far off for me
ever to see, and where my name will probably never be heard.

It is difficult to distinguish generically the differences between the genera Turdus and Merula. Structurally
the Tbrush and the Blackbird are very much alike; yet, to say nothing of the differences in the colouring of
the sexes of the latter, how different are they in their plumage, their habits, and their economies!  Ulti-
mately, I have no doubt, ornithologists will deem it necessary to give more definite characters to each of
those genera than have yet been assigned to them, and will in all probability separate the other members
of the family still further than at present. This Thibetan bird and several allied species will then hold an
intermediate station between Zurdus and Merula. To me the bird is certainly not a true Merula; neither
do I consider it to be so closely allied to the 1. castanea of the Himalayas as, it will be seen, M, Verreaux
is inclined to believe.

The Turdus Gould is another of the many interesting discoveries made by the Abbe Armand David ; and
all that is known respecting it is embodied in the following extract from the seventh volume of the ‘ Nouvelles
Archives du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris,’ which I have taken the liberty of transcribing. The
description and remarks are by M. Jules Verreaux.

‘«¢ Head and neck a dark earth-brown, paler from the chin to the upper part of the chest ; the whole of
the body chestnut-red, somewhat darker on the under surface ; wings and tail black ; under tail-coverts black,
with white centres and tips; irides brown; beak yellow.

‘The female differs in the head being tinted with grey, which becomes lighter on the neck; the red of
the body is also lighter ; and the black of the wings and tail is not only paler but tinged with red ; it is the
same with the under tail-coverts, where the white of the tips and edges of each feather is strongly
tinted with red.

 

«Three examples—namely, a male, an adult female, and an immature female—were killed at Moupin on
the 24th of June, 11th of March, and the Ist of November, 1869.

«¢ The difference which exists between this species and the Merula castanea of Gould, from the continent
of India, is recognizable at a single glance, if it be only by the pale grey head and white neck shown in the
drawing of that author in his ‘ Birds of Asia.’ We are happy, then, to give the name of our clever colleague
to a species which offers so great an analogy with that which he was the first to describe, and which several
modern authors have placed in the genus Geocichla, but according to Mr. Jerdon (whom we have
recently seen, and whom all the world looks upon as the highest authority of our times in all matters
relating to Indian ornithology) is not a true Meruda in its manners. The Abbé David, who discovered this
beautiful species in the forests of the large mountains of Moupin and other Thibetan principalities, tells us
that its habits and voice are precisely similar to those of the true Thrush, but that its ordinary cry is weaker
and more shrill than that of the Blackbird; it frequents the most solitary woods, where it is not rare, and
whence the cold causes it to descend into the valleys in great numbers, especially at the commencement
of winter.”

The accompanying Plate represents, of the size of life, a male specimen kindly lent to me by Mr. Elliot.