124 



12 



tine dry grass. It is frequently roofed over by a projecting ledge of rock, or a bunch of heather. 

 The eggs are four or five in number ; they are more like those of the Fieldfare than those of the 

 Blackbird, and very rarely resemble the common closely freckled egg of the latter. They are 

 frequently more closely marked than figure 3 of the plate, and with much lighter spots of red, 

 brown, and purple, and in some of their varieties resemble the figure of the egg of the Fieldfare. 

 Figure 4 is a variety of unusual beauty, and a good deal like the eggs of the Missel-Thrush." 



We have before us a series of the eggs of this species, from Dresser's collection, and two 

 nests, for which we are indebted to our friend Mr. Henry Seebohm, of Sheffield, whose notes 

 on this species Ave give above. The nests bear great resemblance to those of the common Black- 

 bird, are tolerably neatly constructed of coarse dried grasses and bents, worked together with 

 earth, and lined with finer grass-straws, and the eggs are light bluish green, or watery blue, 

 spotted and blotched with dark red, approaching in character much closer to the eggs of the 

 Missel-Thrush than to those of the Blackbird. In size they measure from 1^ by •§§ to l^j by 

 \i\ inch respectively. 



Mr. Harvie Brown writes to us : — " After an examination of a carefully selected series of 

 forty eggs of Turdus torquatus, and a comparison of these with forty-eight eggs of Turdus pilaris^ 

 the latter chosen from some hundreds of specimens obtained by E. R. Alston and myself in 

 Norway, 1 find it difficult to decide which of the two species presents the greater variation. In 

 the eggs of both species examples occur approaching very closely to typical eggs of T. merula and 

 of T. ri.s, ivorus, whilst amongst the eggs of T. pilaris others are scarcely to be distinguished from 

 some varieties of T. iliacus (even in the matter of size closely approaching each other); and 

 amongst the eggs of T. torquatus arc specimens closely resembling typical eggs of T. musicus, and 

 differing from them only in having the ground-colour of a paler blue, and the spots purple and 

 lilac instead of black. So near do these last approach eggs of T. musicus, however, that if placed 

 in the drawer along with them, they could hardly be separated without reference to their 

 history." 



Dr. E. Bey writes to us that he has procured eggs of this bird from Sweden, Silesia, Mahren, 

 and Galicia, and gives the average size of twenty-one eggs in his collection as 304 by 21*7 millims., 

 the largest measuring 31*5 by 22*5, and the smallest 28 - 5 by 20-5 millims. respectively. 



In the preparation of the above article we have examined the following specimens: — 



E Mus. Sharpe and Dresser. 



ii.jiiw Near Sheffield H. Seebohm). b. Norway (Collett). c, $ . Sweden, June 2nd, 1857 (C. J. Sundevall). 

 d, t* . Palsgard, May 1867 (A. Benzon). e. Prance (Fairm aire), f, 6 ■ Belgrade, Turkey, September 26th, 



isc,!) i 7'. Robson). 



E Mas. II. E. Dresser. 



a, c? . Silesia [Dr. Kutter). 



E Mas. Sal ri» and Godman. 



a. Longshaw, Derbyshire, July 1854 (0. Salvin). b, $ . 15odu, Norway, June 2nd, 1857 (F. Godman). 

 C, d, ,". Skaerstad, Norway, May 14th, 1857 {F. Godman). e,juv. Timor, S. Norway, June 27th, 1866 

 (J. Baker), f, g, h. S. Norway, July I860 (J. Baker). 



