95 



he does not refer to the Blackbird by name; but in his account of the Fieldfare (Tardus pilaris) he 

 gives a figure of the head with a few bristle-like hairs appended to the occiput, concerning -which he 

 writes : — " A few slender undivided filaments project from among the feathers of the occipital region, 

 whence the specific name pilaris, or hairy ; but these filaments are not peculiar to this species, being 

 equally conspicuous in the Missel-Thrush and others, nor even to the genus, as they are seen in the 

 Redbreast and many small birds besides." We give a woodcut (p. -1) showing these peculiar tufts 

 in the old Blackbird. 



Varieties. The Blackbird is subject to many freaks of nature; and it is by no means rare to see specimens 

 with white on the head, hinder neck, and breast. Sometimes albinos are met with ; and Mr. Gurney 

 has lent us one entirely cream-coloured. 



When we first commenced this article it was our intention to give a review of the genus Merida ; and for 

 that purpose many kind friends, amongst whom were our staunch supporters Lord Walden, Canon Tristram, 

 and Messrs. Salvin and Godman, lent us all their specimens of the Blackbirds and their allies ; but on a closer 

 study of the material we at once found it impossible to define any characters by which the so-called Merula! 

 can be separated from the genus Turdus. There is, however, something impressed upon the mind of the 

 ornithologist which enforces a distinction between these two divisions, as represented by our own Common 

 Thrush and Common Blackbird ; but if once an effort is made to transmit to paper these difference's, it will, we 

 believe, be found utterly impossible to define a single tangible character by which a Blackbird can be 

 separated from an ordinary Thrush. Dr. Sclater, in his admirable paper on the genus Turdus (Ibis, 1861, 

 p. 277), does not attempt to separate them generically ; nor does Mr. Gray in his ' Hand-list' (i. p. 255). Here, 

 under the section Merula, we find eighteen species enumerated, to which it seems necessary to add at least 

 no. 3717, T. kinnisii of Kelaart, no. 37.20, T. torquatus, no. 3755, T. serranus, Tschudi (with which nos. 3767 

 and 3768 are identical), and no. 3769, T. infuscatus, Lafr. ; while at the same time there are some African 

 species of the T. olivaceus group, and also many South- American species, which have as good a claim to be 

 included in the section as no. 3705, T. javanicus, concerning which Mr. Blyth remarks (Ibis, 1866, p. 376) 

 that it " might range either in Merula or Geocichla," while, if there still exists any real wish to divide the 

 Blackbh'ds and Thrushes, no. 3699 of Mr. Gray's list (Merula unicolor of Gould) must be struck out; for 

 Mr. W. E. Brooks writes in 'The Ibis' (1869, p. 51) that it is "a true Turdus, moi'e closely allied to T. iliacus 

 than to any other species, and should stand as T. unicolor." These few remarks will show the difficulties 

 attending an attempt to raise up a genus Merula as distinct from Turdus; still it is not to be denied that the 

 real Blackbirds do constitute a more or less defined section of the Thrushes, with a range extending from the 

 Western Palaearctic Region, where they are represented by Turdus merida and T. torquatus, to China, where 

 T. sinensis, the first cousin of our own Blackbird, takes their place, thence through India, where T. albocinctus, 

 T. boulboid, T nigropileus, and T. simillimus continue the representatives, to Ceylon, where T. kinnisii, a small 

 but typical Blackbird, of which Mr. E. W. H. Holdsworth has kindly lent us a nice series of specimens for 

 examination, supplies the link in the chain of extension to the eastward, till we find in the island of Vanikoro 

 the last species of Blackbird in the Old World (cf. Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 304). In America there are two 

 Blackbirds, the males of which are wholly black, and of which Dr. Sclater has shown us specimens, viz. : — 

 1. Turdus serranus, ranging from Tobago and Trinidad through Venezuela, Columbia, and Ecuador into the 

 highlands of Peru, where the original specimens were obtained by Tschudi; 2. T. infuscatus, confined to 

 Southern Mexico and the highlands of Guatemala. Another group of Meruline Thrushes is seen in T. cas- 

 taneus and T. gouldii, which type extends from India and Eastern China southwards to Australia and the 

 islands belonging to the Australian avifauna, such as New Caledonia, Lord Howe's Island, &c. The affinities 

 of the African Thrushes, which have been placed in the genus Merula, seem rather to lie in the direction of the 

 South- American species than of those from more eastern localities. 



