84 T URDUS MERULA. 



Variations. — In the adult males slight variations are ob- 

 served in the tints of the plumage, the lower parts being some- 

 times tinged with grey or brown, and the margins of the quills 

 brown. In the females, the upper parts are sometimes of a 

 lighter brown, the forehead tinged with red, and the fore part 

 of the neck brownish-red ; but this part is always marked with 

 oblongo-triangular dark spots at the tips of the feathers, in 

 which respect the female Blackbird manifests an affinity to the 

 spotted species of the same genus. White, cream-coloured, or 

 variegated individuals are sometimes met with. In May 1832, 

 Mr Carfrae brought me an adult female patched with white, 

 some of the quills being also of that colour. A young male in 

 its second plumage, in my collection, has the lower parts varie- 

 gated with grey and greyish-brown feathers. Mr Stevenson 

 has a male which is white, with black feathers interspersed ; 

 the quills and tail black, except two feathers of the latter, and 

 one of the former, the bill pale-yellow, the feet dusky, curiously 

 variegated with pale-yellow. 



The changes caused by the action of the weather are not very 

 remarkable. The bill continues of the same colour, but the 

 feet are more tinged with yellowish-brown in summer. The 

 quills and tail-feathers lose their minute tips, the wings become 

 much browner, and the glossy black of the males is considera- 

 bly tarnished, while the fore-neck of the females fades to 

 brownish-grey. The alterations, however, are not such as to 

 render necessary a formal description of the species in its sum- 

 mer plumage. 



Habits. — The Blackbird, which is one of the most admired 

 of our native songsters, is a permanent resident, and occurs in 

 almost all parts of England and Scotland, although it prefers 

 the more cultivated districts, and is rarely met with in the cen- 

 tral and more elevated tracts. Being, properly speaking, an 

 inhabitant of bushy places and woods, it does not breed in the 

 northern and more remote Hebrides, nor in districts of the 

 mainland destitute of sylvan vegetation. 



In winter it frequents the neighbourhood of houses and towns, 

 resorting to woods, hedges, and gardens, and generally keeping 



