The Natural History of Ireland/Volume 1/The Gold-vented Thrush

THE GOLD-VENTED THRUSH.

Turdus aurigaster, Vieillot.

chrysorhaus, Temm.

Hamatornis, „ Swains.

Has once been killed in Ireland.

By the kindness of Dr. Burkitt of Waterford, who possesses a collection of native birds, (or species killed in Ireland,) I exhibited an individual of this African thrush to the Natural History section of the British Association, held at Cork in 1843. It was purchased by that gentleman from a country -lad who brought it into Waterford in January, 1838, with a number of blackbirds (Turdus merula) and snipes, and who believed it to be a hen blackbird : he shot it at Mount Beresford, three miles and a half from Waterford. There can therefore be no doubt of the specimen having been killed in this country. It is the only individual known to have occurred in Europe. Le Vaillant described the species in his Birds of Africa, vol. iii. p. 46. pi. 107 (Paris 1802), under the name of Le Cudor, stating that it was dis- covered on the banks of the Groot-vis, a river of the Caffre country : little more is yet known respecting it. A. figure, taken from the specimen here noticed, has appeared in the 2nd edition of Yarrells British Birds, and in the Supplementary part to the 1st edition of the same work.

Mr. R. Ball of Dublin informed me in October, 1845, that three birds of a very nearly allied species, brought from Palestine — and called Palestine Nightingales — had been obtained for the aviary of the Zoological Garden, Phoenix Park. They were more of a slate-colour than the species under consideration.