11 How to Sex Cage Birds. 



Indian Dayal-Bird [Gopsychus saularis). 



The male is practically a blue-black and white bird ; the female 

 is slate -rev above; with throat and breast ashy; wings brown; 

 abdomen sandy brown, whitish in centre. 



In the Shamas there is much less structural difference in the sexes 

 than in the Dayal-birds, but the base of the bill seen from above is 

 wider in the hen birds than in the cocks. 



Indian Sham a (Ciltocinc/a macrura). 



The female is a duller-coloured bird than the cock, the blue-black 

 of the male being represented by smoky black, but that of the back 

 more ashy ; the flights with narrower pale borders ; the white tipping 

 to the four outer tail-feathers much restricted ; under surface dis- 

 tinctly paler than in the male. 



In the American Blue-Bird (the Blue-Robin of the dealers) the 

 sexes differ structurally exactly as in the true Thrushes, though the 

 difference of size is perhaps less marked than in our Blackbird. 



The Blue-Bird (Sialia sin/is). 

 The hen is duller and perhaps greyer than the cock, her head and 

 bill tinged with brown. 



The true Mocking- Birds (Mimus) are extremely difficult to sex. 

 The bill varies so much at different ages, that without having 

 undoubted fully adult specimens of both sexes before one it is 

 impossible to speak positively, but it appears to be rather more 

 slender in the male than the female. 



North American Mocking-Bird (Mimus polyglottus). . 



The throat in adult males is certainly whiter than in the females 

 and without any grey mottling at the sides; in young females the 

 whole under-surface is distinctly greyer than in male birds. 



The structural differences in the Liotriges are very slight, and 

 difficult to define. In Fore'ujn Bird- Keeping, p. 12, I have indicated 

 the very slight difference in form of bill which I could detect in 

 undoubted sexes, but they are hardly marked enough to be of much 

 use to bird-owners. The male in fully adult birds is slightly larger 

 than the female, but the difference is barely noticeable. 



The Pekin Nightingale (Liothrix luteus). 



Unhappily what is true of the structural characters in this bird 

 is equally true of the colouring. Theoretically the colouring of the 

 male should be brighter throughout than that of the female, and 

 1 think it probable that if one could compare a hundred adults of 

 each sex the balance of good looks would be on the side of the cock 

 birds; hut in each sex are individuals abnormally bright or dull, so 

 that it is possible to find male and female almost as like as two 

 peas, so far as ordinary human eyesight can discern: nevertheless 



