FOR CAGES AND AVIARIES. 201 



creature, brownish-olive on the upper, and creamy-white 

 on the lower surface of the body, where he also presents 

 a mottled appearance in consequence of a number of 

 heart or spearhead-shaped spots scattered irregularly on 

 the throat and breast as well as the upper part of the 

 abdomen. 



The female may be distinguished by the decidedly 

 greyer tinge of her plumage both on the upper and lower 

 parts, while her spots are rounder in shape. She is 

 somewhat smaller than her mate, who measures 8^ inches 

 from the point of the bill to the extremity of the tail, 

 which takes up 3^ inches of the entire length. 



Albino and pied or parti-coloured Thrushes are occasion- 

 ally met with, and black or melanotic specimens are 

 tolerably frequent, and have given rise to the erroneous 

 belief that such birds are hybrids resulting from a cross 

 between a Thrush and a Blackbird. So prevalent is this 

 notion that on more than one occasion a bird of this 

 description has actually been awarded a prize in a class 

 for hybrids at a bird show! though, it is needless to 

 observe, no such phenomenon as cross-pairing ever takes 

 place in a state of nature, nor has any trustworthy 

 evidence been brought forward of Thrushes and Blackbirds 

 mating together and producing mules even in confinement. 



The Song Thrush is resident with us, and keeps 

 pretty constantly to the spot where it was hatched : shy 

 and solitary in its habits, even in winter, when stress of 

 weather forces other species into unusual companionship, 

 it is rarely seen even in pairs except during the breed- 

 ing season. In the house it should be provided with a 

 large cage, a convenient form of which is 2^ feet long 

 by 15 inches wide, and 2 feet high, with the roof con- 

 structed in the Swiss cottage style, or like the letter V 

 turned upside-down, thus — A, which has abetter appearance 

 than a flat top for a cage of the above dimensions. The food 

 and water vessels may be placed outside, but if so, the 

 apertures through which the bird reaches their contents 

 must be of sufficient size to prevent the feathers getting 

 rubbed when it is eating or drinking. There are usually 

 ^hree perches, one each in front of the food and water 



