BIRDS THRUSHES 25 



I have never heard that there is any real 

 difference in size, but hen blackbirds appear 

 bigger than cocks, just as young gulls in 

 immature plumage seem larger than old ones. 

 I suppose the different colour has something 

 to do with it, and perhaps the cock's feathers 

 are more closely set than the hen's. 



My wife told me that she had seen one 

 evening in September (1907) 16 blackbirds 

 on the tennis ground together. This seems 

 perhaps rather a large order, as they say, but 

 in the following September I counted nine 

 myself, to the best of my belief, all of them 

 cocks. 



