HO TDRDUS MUSICUS, 



the youngof other birds, hasbeendisplayedin several very striking 

 instances. I have now in my possession a male Thrush, which 

 when it was six weeks old, brought up a brood of half-fledged 

 larks. What is still more remarkable, he with the most tender 

 care and anxiety fed a young Cuckoo, which had been taken 

 out of a Titlark's nest in Pottishaw IMoss. No sooner however 

 had he taught this cruel bird to feed itself, than it requited its 

 benefactor with harshness and ingratitude. Of the least par- 

 ticle of food it would scarcely allow him to partake. With it 

 he had several very severe engagements ; and so quarrelsome 

 did the Cuckoo become that it deprived him of a great number 

 of his feathers, so that I was at length obliged to put them in 

 separate cages." 



Young. — The young when fledged have the bill of the same 

 colours as the adult, but lighter ; the iris brownish-black ; the 

 feet pale flesh-colour, anteriorly tinged with blue, the heel yel- 

 low, and the sole of a brighter yellow than in the adult ; the 

 claws brown tinged with blue. The general colour of the 

 plumage above is brownish-olive, the head tinged with reddish- 

 brown, the rump with grey ; all the feathers of the head with 

 a slight central streak of ochre -yellow, those of the back more 

 decidedly marked in the same manner. The smaller wing- 

 coverts are largely streaked and tipped, and the secondary 

 coverts are tipped with ochre, and the outer webs of the quills 

 and wing-feathers generally tinged with the same. The colour 

 of the lower parts as in the adult, the yellow of the neck brighter, 

 and the spots darker. The young bird is easily distinguished 

 from the old by the greater looseness of the plumage, and espe- 

 cially by the ochre streaks and spots of the dorsal and alar fea- 

 thers. 



Progress toward Maturity. — After the first autumnal 

 moult the plumage is complete. As the bird advances in age, 

 the buffy tints of the fore-neck and sides fade ; but the other 

 changes are hardly perceptible, I have seen individuals, ap- 

 parently old, in which the yellow of the lower parts had entire- 

 ly disappeared. 



