«inrito to the eggs of the Starling, pure and spotless. Apropos of these light-coloured -eggs,
Dixon writes that ‘ in Derbyshire, for three successive years, a pair of Blackbirds built their nest gg
a spreading laurel, in exactly the same situation yearly; and each season their eggs were remarkable
for being pale blue and spotless. This pair of birds produced during this period some thirty eggs,
all similar in colour, thus affording considerable proof that the colour of birds’ eggs is to a great
extent hereditary. I have known similar instances with the Starling, the Titmouse, and the Kobm,
where for several seasons the eggs have possessed certain peculiar characters.’ The eggs vary irom
1-35 to 1 inch in length, and in. breadth from .-9 to -79 inch. The Blackbird usually rears two,
and sometimes even three broods in a year, nests containing newly laid eggs not unfrequently being
found in July and early in August. The young birds are fed on worms, snails, grubs, and insects ;
and the parent bird tends them but a short time after they quit the nest. When visiting the nest
with food, both male and female birds are extremely cautious ; and should they obtain a glimpse ol
any intruder, they will sometimes fly restlessly about for hours with the food in their beaks rather
than betray the site of the nest. Both the male and female bird assist in hatching the eggs and
rearing the young; but the female is by far the most frequently found upon the nest; and she
conveys the greater part of the food to the young as well. In the rearing-season the male Blackbird
sometimes warbles as he flies through the air to and from the nest,
Nestling General colour above rufous-brown, the head and back streaked with rufescent centres
to the feathers, which have blackish margins; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts dusky
blackish-brown, the latter mesially streaked and broadly edged with rufous ; wmg-coverts -blackish*
brown, with distinct triangular spots of rufous, smaller and nearly obsolete on the greater series;
primary-coverts, quills, and tail blackish-brown; sides of face and sides of neck brown streaked
with rufous; under surface of body dull rufescent, the feathers edged with dusky-brown, especially
■distinct on the breast, where whitish shaft-lines are evident, as they are also on the .flank-feathers
and under tail-coverts, being very distinct on tbe latter.
Adult male. General colour above and below black, including the wings and ta il: bill orange,
yellow; feet and claws dark brown or black; iris hazel; eyelid orange. Total length 10 inches,
culmen l'O, wing 5*05, tail 3 '/, tarsus l'o . 1
Young males after their first moult can generally be recognized by their black -bill, but not
invariably for I have examined specimens killed in the first winter in which the bill is yellow,
with the culmen and tomia more or less black. A surer way of distinguishing a young male Blackbird
from an old one in the winter plumage is by the brown wings, the primary-coverts and .
primaries being always dark brown in the immature birds. The black on the under surface of the
body is also never so pure, and even in the succeeding spring remains of brown edgings to the breastfeathers
may be traced. • „ - , , . ,
In the first winter the young males display great diversity of plumage, and scarcely two
■individuals are alike, the feathers of the under surface being e d g e d with rufous-brown, which fades
to buff or even to dull white. The throat is often white, streaked with black, and the breastfeathers
sometimes show whitish shaft-lines. The bill is s om e tim e s yehow, sometimes black and
o f te n p a r t i - c o lo n r e d . The b l a c k plumage o f the first spring is intensified by the abrasion of the |
pale edgings to the feathers of the under surface, of which, however, some traces can always .
be distinguished, and often a little patch of light-edged feathers remains, generally on the
fore’The greater or less amount of pale edging on the breast-feathers seems to me to depend on
-the vigour of the bird, and a very curious specimen is in the British Museum: it was shot by
myself at Avington in Hampshire in November, and is apparently a perfectly old male. I t had
evidently been seized by a cat or a hawk, and could not fly, as the whole of the flight-feathers of
the right wing had been torn out, and a wound inflicted on the chest. This damage was being
repaired by a moult, and it is curious to note that the new feathers were those of the young plumage
of the first autumn,
Adult female. Differs from the male. Above dark olive-brown ; the wing-coverts like the
back; the quills sepia-brown, externally washed with dark olive ; tail blackish-brown ; lores dusky,
surmounted with a slight shade of ashy; ear-coverts dusky brown, with narrow whitish shaft-lines;
cheeks and throat pale ashy, thickly streaked with broad black centres to the feathers; fore-neck
and chest more reddish-brown, shading off into dusky grey on the breast and abdomen and into
olive on the flanks, the lower flanks and under tail-coverts being dark ashy brown; the fore-neck
and chest spotted with black triangular tips to the feathers, which have obsolete whitish shaft-lines;
thighs brown; under wing-coverts and axillaries dull ashy brown; quill-lining paler ashy. Total
length 10 inches, culmen 0-95, wing 5’0, tail 3*6, tarsus T35.
Among the female Blackbirds there seems to be a greater variation than among the males, and
the younger birds in their first winter appear to be more rufous, the black spotting on the throat
and breast being very distinct. At the same time it is evident that the female Blackbirds incline
generally,to a rufous phase, in which the greyish colour of the throat and chest is replaced
by rufous.
The older birds become blackish above instead of olive-brown, and a cindery shade pervades the
whole of the under surface, the throat alone being greyish-white with black spots and streaks,
which become more or less obsolete on the breast, where they are either represented by blackish
triangular spots or by black centres to the feathers. The grey of the breast and abdomen is
obscured by ashy-white margins after the autumn moult; but these edgings gradually become
abraded, leaving the under surface of the body much darker.
The bill is at first dark brown, but in old birds it becomes nearly as yellow as in the males.
The species undoubtedly varies considerably in size, the specimens from Western Europe being
smaller than those from Eastern Europe and Central Asia (Jf- intermedia). This will be seen from
the following measurements of the wings of the specimens in the British Museum :—
M. merula.
Males. Females.
Great B rita in ....................... . . 4-8-5-25 4-7-5-05
France .................................. . . 5 1 4-75-4-95
Holland ............................ . . 4-95
H e l i g o l a n d ...................... 4-9-5-2
Hungary ' . ...................... . , 5-0 4-9
Italy . ............................ .. . 4-9
P o r t u g a l ............................ . . 4-8
A z o r e s ................................. 4-5
M a d e i r a ............................ . . 4-9-5-1 4-7-4'9
Canaries . . . , . . 4-8-5-1
Tunis . . . 4-9
M a r o c c o ...................... . . 5-0
Palestine . . . . 4-8
Asia Minor . . . 4-9
Erzeroum . 4-9
Voronesch . . 5 1
P S ® B .........................................................5/05-5-2
VOL. II.