THE BLACKBIRDS. 253 



and two more eggs were laid precisely similar to the first, and 

 evidently by the same bird 



Eggs. — From four to six .n number. The eggs vary to any 

 extent in colour and shape. The ground-colour is greenish- 

 blue and the overlying markings are reddish-brown, arranged 

 as spots or blotches, sometimes so thickly that the egg appears 

 reddish, but the blotches are often collected at the larger end. 

 From this type of egg, which is the ordinary one, every varia- 

 tion seems to take place, some eggs being so minutely spotted 

 with reddish-brown as to recall those of the Jay, while not 

 unfrequently they are so sparsely spotted as to appear almost 

 entirely blue, and are sometimes actually blue. Those in a 

 clutch from Waterford, in the Seebohm collection, have the 

 ground-colour white instead of blue, and the markings light 

 reddish-brown. (Plate xxxi., fig. 6.) 



II. THE RING-OUZEL. MERULA TORQUATA. 



Turdus torquatus^ Linn., Syst. Nat., i. } p. 296 (1766) • Macg., 

 Br. B., ii., p. 100 (1839); Newt. ed. Yarr., i., p. 287 

 (1872); Dresser, B. Eur., ii., p. 113, pis. 14, 15 (1872); 

 B. O. U. List Br. B., p. 5 (1883) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Br. 

 B., pt. i (1885); Saunders, Man., p. 15 (1889). 



MeritLx torquata, Seeb., Cat. B. Brit. Mus., v., p. 246 (1881); 

 id. Br. B., i., p. 243(1883). 



Adult Male. — General colour above sooty-black, the lesser 

 wing-coverts like the back ; median and greater coverts, 

 primary-coverts, and quills brownish-black, with narrow fringes 

 of ashy on the outer web, scarcely visible on the bastard-wing 

 feathers, which are blackish ; tail-feathers blackish-brown, with 

 a slight fringe of whitish at the tips of the feathers ; sides of 

 head, throat, and under surface of body sooty-black, with 

 narrow whitish margins to the feathers of the breast and 

 abdomen, thighs and under tail-coverts ; across the fore-neck a 

 broad band of white, slightly shaded with brown, and reaching 

 to the sides of the neck ; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 a ihy-brown, barred with dull white at the ends and towards the 

 tips of the feathers ; quills dusky below, ashy along the inner 

 webs j bill yellow ; feet and claws brown \ iris dark brown. 



