Turdus chrysolaus Temminck, Pl. Col. (1831), 2, 537; Whitehead,
Ibis (1899), 213; Sharpe, Hand-List (1903), 4, 139; Oates and
Reid, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1905), 4, 119, pl. 6, figs. 15 and 18;
McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 84.
Merula chrysolaus Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1891), 5, 275.
Pir-pi-rú-ca, Calayan.
Calayan (McGregor); Luzon (Whitehead). Japan, Hainan, and Eastern
Siberia; in winter to Formosa and China.
"In the adult male the general color of the upper parts is
russet-brown, tinged with gray on the head; lores very dark brown;
ear-coverts brown; scarcely a trace of eye-stripe; wings brown, the
primaries, primary-coverts, and alula feathers with the outer webs
slaty brown; the secondaries, greater, median, and lesser wing-coverts
with outer webs russet-brown; tail brown, the outer web of each feather
margined with olive-brown; inner web of the outside tail-feathers
narrowly margined with white; throat and cheeks sooty brown, shading
into chestnut-brown on the breast, and into deep rich chestnut on the
flanks, leaving the belly white; under tail-coverts white, with the
basal half edged with brown; axillars and under wing-coverts edged
with pale slate-gray, obscurely tipped with white; inner margin of
quills pale slaty brown. Bill dark brown, yellow at the base of the
under mandible. Wings with the third and fourth primaries nearly equal
and longest, second primary between the fourth and fifth, or fifth
and sixth, bastard primary 18 to 16.5 mm. Legs, feet, and claws pale
brown. Wing, 127 to 117; tail, 91 to 79; culmen, 22.6 to 19; tarsus,
33 to 29.
"The female has no gray on the head or wings, the upper throat
is nearly white, and the feathers of the cheeks and the center
of the throat are white, with dark brown, fan-shaped terminal
spots. Males of the year resemble females. Young in first plumage
are unknown." (Seebohm.)