98 TURDUS MERULA. 



that colour, tinged and blotched with dusky orange. The 

 colour of the feathers undergoes no very remarkable change 

 until the next moult, when it becomes darker ; but the bill 

 gradually becomes more yellow, so that by the beginning of 

 summer, it is entirely of that colour. In the young females 

 the upper plumage is olive brown, the breast and fore-neck are 

 light umber, the abdomen more or less greyish, the auricular 

 coverts with whitish shafts, and the bill and feet brownish-black. 



Remarks. — I have found very considerable differences as 

 to size in individuals, so that several females examined were 

 larger than many of the males, which, however, is not ordin- 

 arily the case. The dimensions of a number of specimens are 

 here given : — 



M. M. M. M. F. F. F. F. 



Length lOi 



Extent 15 



Bill !§ 



Tarsus 1^ 



Middle toe li 



The British species most nearly allied to the Blackbird is 

 the Ring Ouzel, which presents the same form and habits, with 

 slight variations. The only known species of the genus Seri- 

 culus of Mr Swainson, which that distinguished naturalist 

 places among his Oriolinse, is much more closely related to 

 Turdus than to Oriolus. Indeed, his groupings of the Meru- 

 lidse require much of that kind of analysis which is performed 

 with the aid of the scalpel. Were it not for the elongated 

 filaments on the extremity of the tongue of the Sericulus, I do 

 not see why it should not stand simply as a species of Turdus. 



On referring to the descriptions of the Blackbird by British 

 authors, I find nothing in them to which the reader may be 

 desired to look; and I may be allowed to observe that my own ob- 

 servations, and those of Mr Weir, recorded above, seem to afford a 

 fuller history of the species than any hitherto published in this 

 country at least. Montagu and Mr Selby are both remarkably 

 brief on the subject ; but Mr Wood treats it in an interesting 



