EUROPEAN BLACKBIRD 71 



complete albino Robin of undoubted identity. But a recent critical study, made 

 at the suggestion of Mr. H. S. Swarth, showed that the bird was not a Western 

 Robin at all. On the presumption that the bird in question was an individual 

 which had strayed out of its normal path of migration, the descriptions and illus- 

 trations of dark-colored thrushes in Central America and Eastern Asia contained 

 in Seebohm's Monograph of the Turdidae were examined, but without revealing 

 any species with which the specimen in hand might be linked. The bird was then 

 submitted to Dr. Charles W. Richmond for comparison with the National Museum 

 material and he identified it as a female English Blackbird, Planeslicus merula, 

 (Linnaeus) . 



The specimen in question was collected by F. O. Johnson at Oakland, California, 

 on December 6, 1891. It came with the rest of the Johnson collection to the 

 Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and is now number 10688 of the bird collection. 

 In an article published soon after its capture (,Zoe, III, 1892, pp. 115-116), 

 Johnson described the bird, identifying it as a melanistic Robin (Merula migra- 

 toria propinqua). He also gave the circumstances of capture and they are worth 

 recording in the present connection. 



"* * * While pursuing a Townsend's Sparrow which had flown to the top 

 of a tall growth of jasmine, I noticed on the opposite side of the bush a strange 

 bird moping in the shade. It observed me just as I saw it, and hopped sluggishly to 

 another branch putting a bough between us. * * * My first impression was 

 that it might be a catbird which had strayed from his rightful home. I crept up 

 * * * and easily approached within twenty feet. It made no note and did 

 not pay the least attention to my maneuvers. When I killed it, I was still more 

 puzzled, for it was totally different from anything I had ever seen. It appeared 

 much like some European thrush." 



Dr. Storer goes on to point out that a short time prior to the cap- 

 ture of this bird there had been some activity in the importation of 

 European song birds, including blackbirds, on the Pacific coast. 

 Such an importation and release of 16 pairs of "black thrushes (Turdus 

 merula)" is recorded at Portland, Oreg., in May 1889. It seems not 

 impossible that the bird in question was one of these, which had 

 migrated southward, or perhaps more probably it was the result of 

 some other, unrecorded, introduction. 



In its habits and behavior, though not in its coloring, the blackbird 

 is in many ways a close counterpart of what an English writer may 

 perhaps be pardoned for calling the American robin, and the reader 

 will probably find in the description that follows a number of passages 

 that could be applied without much alteration to the latter species. 



In England, the blackbird is one of the most familiar birds, well 

 known owing to the distinctive appearance of the male, his fine song, 

 and the partiality of the species for gardens. The male, with his 

 striking glossy black plumage and orange-yellow bill, is one of the 

 very few birds which probably the least ornithologically inclined 

 country dweller knows by sight, though the brown female is less 

 generally recognized and often confused with the song thrush by the 

 unobservant. It is a typical garden and shrubbery bird, and to a 



