BLACKBIKD. 205 



The Blackbird is also now found over Scotland. Mr. 

 Selby saw it in Sutlierlandsliire in June 1834; and it is 

 recorded as inhabiting the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Shetland. 



In Sweden, Professor Nilsson says it is common every- 

 where ; and Mr. Hewitson and his party saw it occasionally 

 in Norway. From the northern parts of Europe it is spread 

 southward over the whole of the European continent to Italy, 

 and is known to go from thence to North Africa. Accord- 

 ing to M. Temminck, the Blackbird also inhabits the Morea ; 

 and Mr. Charles Darwin saw it as far to the westward as 

 Tercera, one of the Azores. 



The beak and the edges of the eyelids in the adult male 

 are gamboge-yellow : the whole of the plumage black ; under 

 surface of the wings shining greyish black ; the legs and toes 

 brownish black ; claws black. 



The whole length of the bird about ten inches. The 

 wing from, the carpal joint to the end of the longest primary 

 four inches and seven-eighths : the first feather very short ; 

 the second not quite so long as the fifth, but longer than the 

 sixth ; the third, fourth, and fifth feathers, equal in length, 

 and the longest in the wing. 



In the female, all the plumage of the upper surface is 

 uniform umber brown ; the chin, throat, and upper part of 

 the breast, reddish yellow brown, with a few darker-coloured 

 spots ; belly, sides, and under tail-coverts, hair-brown. 



The young have the upper parts blackish brown, darker in 

 the males, each feather having a central spot or streak of 

 pale rufous ; under parts light rufous brown, with terminal 

 dark spots, generally more distinct in the males. 



Young males having completed their first autumn moult, 

 are intermediate in the general colour of their plumage be- 

 tween that of the adult female and adult male, the yellow 

 also beginning to appear at the point of the beak. 



