68 Rock Thrushes 



its reward. My rock thrushes were safely landed in 

 England ; all but one, as in the case of the blue 

 thrushes, being given away to friends. 



There is a photograph of the late Lord Lilford, 

 with a rock thrush in a cage on the table by which 

 he is sitting, which was one of his favourite birds, 

 and I believe is the " Colossera " that I gave him, 

 picked from the brood, reared up, and brought home 

 in the manner just described. 



How much we bird-lovers wish he was still 

 amongst us ! 



The male bird that I kept — and still have — did 

 not acquire a perfectly bright breeding plumage until 

 his third spring, inclusive of the spring in which he 

 was hatched ; but then his blue head, chestnut breast, 

 and white back, with deep brown shoulders, appeared 

 in all their beauty. He is an early moulter, all his 

 feathers, except the tail and larger wing feathers, 

 which are only cast in the autumnal moult, falling 

 out in positive showers by the middle of February, 

 when his speckled winter plumage, which he has worn 

 since the previous August, is quickly replaced by the 

 more gay and conspicuous costume of the breeding 

 season. It is as the summer costume of a fine Ascot, 

 compared with the more sombre ones of a foggy 

 winter in London. 



And how my old rock thrush sings after his return 

 from Nature's dressmaker ! Like the Passera, already 

 written about in the previous chapter, he has picked 

 up some of my impromptu whistlings, but his wild 

 love song of the mountains is reserved for special 



