IN JERDON OR STRAY FEATHERS. 381 



length, 10*5 inches; culmen, T05 : wing, 4*8; tail, 4 - 4 ; tarsus, 

 1-35. 



Adult Female. — Above dusky olive-brown, entirely uniform; 

 the ear-coverts a trifle inclining to ashy brown, with the 

 shafts indicated by a narrow whitish line ; wing-coverts exactly 

 the same colour as the back, some of the outermost of the great- 

 er and primary coverts washed with clearer brown on the 

 outer web ; quills brown, the inner surface silky white ; the 

 primaries externally margined with paler brown, somewhat 

 inclining to white towards the tips of these quills ; tail uniform 

 dark brown ; throat and sides of the neck greyish white, 

 the former spotted and streaked with very dark brown ; upper 

 part of the breast ferruginous, mottled all over with triangular 

 markings of dull brown ; the rest of the under surface of the 

 body greyish ; the flanks strongly inclining to brown ; under 

 wing-coverts ashy brown ; bill dull yellow, browner along the 

 culmen ; feet yellowish ; iris dark hazel ; eye-lid dull gam- 

 boge. Total length, 10 inches; culmen, 1*0; wing, 4*9 ; tail 

 4'2; tarsus, 135. 



Observation. — Macgillivray gives the colour of the bill in the 

 female as dark brown ; but we have no doubt, judging from 

 the series of specimens now before us, that the adult bird gets 

 a yellow bill, perhaps never so bright as in the old male. Mr. 

 Robson says that in Turkey "the old male and female have each 

 of them a yellow bill." The hen Blackbird certainly exhibits 

 great variation in plumage, but the differences seem to us to 

 be in great part due to age : thus some specimens are very 

 dark underneath, with scarcely any tinge of ferruginous, while 

 others are much paler, and the reddish colour extends nearly 

 up to the chin or far down on to the lower breast. 



Young (fully grown). — Above brown; the feathers of the 

 nape narrowly streaked down the middle with fulvous, these 

 central shafts markings being broad and inclining to rufous 

 on the head ; back, scapulars, and upper wing-coverts 

 much broader on the last-named parts and on the wing-coverts, 

 and widening out into a triangular spot ; lower part of the 

 back and rump brown, shaded with rufous, which is much 

 clearer on the upper tail-coverts ; quills brown, the innermost 

 secondaries faintly glossed with fulvous brown, aud the pri- 

 maries obscurely margined with the same colour ; tail entirely 

 black, the feathers pointed at the tips ; under surface of the 

 body pale orange rufous ; this colour extending on to the fore- 

 head and sides of the face ; the ear-coverts narrowly streaked 

 with whitish lines along the shaft; cheeks mottled with little 

 specks of brown, collecting on the lower part, and thus forming 

 an indistinct malar stripe ; the throat itself scarcely spotted 



49 



