HOW TO SEX CAGE BIRDS. 



Chapter I. 



BRITISH THRUSH-LIKE BIRDS. 



The characters which distinguish the male and female in cage- 

 birds have been a favourite study of mine for many years, but my 

 first paper on this subject was published in 1897, and entitled, "On 

 Sexual Distinctions in Finches which are Similarly Coloured in 

 Both Sexes" [Avicultural Magazine, vol. hi. pp. 104-106). Since 

 that date I have published a fair number of articles dealing with 

 the same subject, both in The Avicultural Magazine and The 

 Zoologist, as well as a chapter in my little handbook Hints on 

 Cage-Birds. 



I am so frequently asked how the sexes of various birds can be 

 distinguished, that it has seemed good to the Editor of The 

 Feathered World and Canary and Cage-Bird Life to ask me to 

 prepare the present work for publication, to enable bird-lovers to 

 distinguish the sex of all the better known British cage-birds and of 

 the more familiar foreigners which they may chance to own ; and in 

 order that there may be no undue preference given to the study of 

 our native birds, it is proposed that these articles should deal, so 

 far as possible, alternately with British and foreign species. I shall 

 begin with 



The Thrushes (Turdidce). 



In its widest sense the family of Thrushes includes the typical 

 Thrush-like birds, the Warblers and the Accentors, all of which 

 have the young spotted on the breast ; in its more restricted sense 

 it is represented by the Throstles, Blackbirds or Ouzels, Robins, 

 Nightingales, and Chat-like birds. Why the latter are, in works on 

 British birds, placed between the closely related Blackbirds and 

 Robins I could never understand ; and I do not intend to blindly 

 follow that plan here 



An examination of the sexes in the true Thrushes shows that the 

 cocks, although slimmer than their hens, are larger birds — that is 

 to say they are longer, owing to the greater length of their tails 

 and of their more slender bills. Their general outline is not so 

 stout and "stocky" (as the florists say) as that of their hens, so 

 that they not only are, but appear, more alert. 



