HEREDITY 95 



thrush, when migrating, utters just such a toneless, 

 though a much shorter squeaHng cry or call-note. 

 The inferences deducible from this resemblance are 

 strengthened by a physical analogy between the 

 starling and the Turdidce, the fact that the young of 

 the former are brown when first fledged. Some of 

 them, having retained their nestling-plumage until 

 maturity, have been held to constitute a distinct 

 species, the solitary thrush of Montagu, Bewick, and 

 Knapp (4th ed. Yarrell's British Birds, vol. ii. p. 242). 

 Not only does one of the Corvidce utter a cry like 

 one of the Turdidce, but one of the latter appears to 

 utter a cry resembling the most characteristic tone of 

 the former. I have heard the mistle-thrush, when 

 carrying food, apparently to its young, utter a loud 

 cah, like the cry of the jay. 



In dealing with birds of the thrush family, it may 

 be well to treat first of their alarm-cries and their 

 call-notes. The loud, rattling alarm-screech of the 

 mistle-thrush is uttered by its young when able to 

 fly, as a call to the parents ; it is uttered most often 

 and most vehemently by the adults during spring, 

 and is somewhat abbreviated in winter, when it is, 

 apparently, equally a call and an alarm. In early 

 spring this cry seems to be sometimes uttered, as 

 is occasionally the rattling cry of the blackbird, for 



