ML641424864

Détails de l'observation

[Approximate pinned location, deduced from the text, Przewalski’s account of the journey (in two volumes), the expedition's detailed itinerary, and Petermann’s 'route-map' of c. 1876] "111. Merula kessleri, n. sp. Drost Kesslera. (Plate LIV. 11.) "The species, named by me after our well-known ichthyologist. Professor Kessler, was discovered by us in the Kan-su mountains, where it inhabits the wooded and alpine bush-covered districts. It principally keeps, however, to the thick groves of juniper-bushes, which grow at a height of 1200 feet above the sea-level. In its habits M. kessleri very much resembles 31. gouldii, and sings equally well, which it usually does from the top of some tree. The call-note, however, which it utters in rising or when flying, consists of rough monosyllables something like 'chock, chock, chock '. The first migrants were observed on the 13th of April. They arrived in pairs or small flocks of from three to five, and were at that time usually seen in the thickets on the shores of mountain-creeks. In the middle of May the nests were ready ; and, judging from the loss of feathers on the stomach, the male also takes his turn in hatching. About the end of July we noticed the first fully fledged young, which during the months of July and August kept in families. These flocks, and also those consisting of old birds in spring, were usually to be seen feeding in the mountain-meadows. The Kan-su mountains form the northern limit of these birds." (Prjevalsky [= Przewalski], 1877, p.p. 199-200) Prjevalsky [= Przewalski], N. (1877), ‘On the birds of Mongolia, the Tangut Country, and the solitudes of Northern Tibet’, translated from Russian by E. Carl Craemers, in Rowley, G.D., ed. Ornithological miscellany, vol. 2, pp. 137-204, 271-320, & 379-438. Available at https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35519712 (page 137, title page of paper). Accessed 6 September 2025.