94 



Adult Male. Silky black, the wings a little paler, inclining to silvery grey on the under surface of the wing ; 

 bill orange ; feet dark brown ; the soles yellow ; eyelid orange. Total length 10-5 inches, culmen 1-05, 

 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 greater 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, some- 

 what 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 b.own ; 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 ; eyelid dull gamboge. Total length 

 10 inches, culmen TO, wing 19, tail 4*2, tarsus T35. 



Obs. 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 differ- 

 ences 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. 



Before these differences can be clearly understood, however, it will be absolutely necessary to have a large 

 series of specimens, from all localities, carefully sexed and dated. This we cannot say that we have 

 at present; and we feel dubious as to the correct determination of some of the sexes in the speci- 

 mens we have examined. Many of the darker-coloured specimens collected iu Durham by Mr. 

 J. H. Gurney, jun., appear to us to differ from other English examples, and may very probably be 

 migrants from the Continent. Again, another female in Mr. Howard Saunders's collection, shot in 

 the Sierra Nevada in April 1S71, is remarkable for the grey underparts, with scarcely a trace of 

 ferruginous on the breast, and only a few spots of brown. When we consider that under the diligent 

 observation of the late renowned ornithologist Professor Savi, of Pisa, a very distinct race, if not 

 actually a species, of Blackbird was found in Italy, we may well consider whether the history of the 

 species is thoroughly understood. 



To this race further reference is made below, as also to Tardus dacfijlopterus and the Blackbird of the 

 Azores. 



On the occiput of the Blackbird, cveu in the young birds, little tufts of hair are to be seen. This peculiarity 

 was first pointed out to us by the late Mr. Briggs, of Cookham, who was a first-rate practical observer. 



lie used to consider that this development only took place in very old birds; but we have discovered it 

 in young ones of the year; nor has this fact been unrecorded by the ever-careful Macgillivray, though 



