o?i the Grey-whiged Ouzel.



247



Four is the normal number of the eggs, but I have taken


five.”


“In their style of colouring the eggs most recall those of

Merida unicolor , and are very different from those of the Nilgliiri

Blackbird. The ground-colour, where visible, is a pale dingy

green, but it is at all times thickly streaked, mottled, and clouded

with dull brownish red, and in some eggs so closely as to entirely

obscure the ground colour. One egg before me is an almost

uniform dull red, here and there mottled slightly paler. In

another egg a good deal of the ground-colour shows through,

except at the large end, where the markings form a confluent

irregular cap. The eggs are slightly glossy and differ little in

size from those of the European and Nilghiri Blackbird, but they

appear to be less commonly pointed and more commonly obtuse

than those of either of these species.


I11 length they vary from i*i to 1*33 inch, and in breadth

from o’83 to 0-92 inch.”


I strongly suspect, from what I know of the extraordinary

variability in size, form, and colouring of the European eggs,

that a long series of eggs of M. boidboid would prove to be quite

indistinguishable from those of our species: I have taken the

two types above described and many others equally remarkable,

as may be seen in my “Handbook of British Oology” and

“ Birds’ Eggs of the British Isles.”


I feed my Grey-wing, as I do all Thrushes, upon the same

soft mixture as I give to other Insectivorous birds, with a few

grapes and cockroaches in winter, small English fruits, various

insects or their larvse in summer. He also digs up a good many

worms in moist weather, and I add any which I chance to drop

upon when gardening.



