BRITISH SONG-BIUDS. 67 



than if its tongue were cut — a cruel practice, and 

 therefore very reprehensible. 



Description and Plumage, 



The length of this bird is nearly nine inches — 

 crown of the head very flat, nearly equal in a line 

 with the bill — nostrils covered by a prominent 

 ring — ^bill shai*p-pointed ; in old male birds, of a 

 pale safii'on-yellow colom*, bro^\Tiish-black at the 

 point — eye chesnut-brown — the whole ground-co- 

 lour of the plumage bluish-black — the feathers on 

 the head, neck, back, wings, and tail are edged 

 with pale wood-brown — throat, and upper part of 

 the breast, glossed with reddish-purple, and, on 

 the breast and under parts, with deep duck-green, 

 passing into Prussian blue — each feather on the 

 head, neck, throat, and part of the back, marked 

 at the point vA\h very pale wood-brown spots, in- 

 clining to white; and, on the breast and under 

 parts, the feathers are tipped with yellowish- white — • 

 legs and feet dingy orange-coloured brown. The 

 young, till after the first moult, are of a sooty, um- 

 ber-bro\^Ti colour, somewhat like young blackbirds. 

 In a wild state, they remain a long time depend- 

 ent on their parents. The old female is very like 



