146 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



it carefully over and said it was a Blackbird ! The general look and " cut " 

 of the head is that of a Blackbird, although it is smaller. Its bill is 

 slightly longer and larger than that of the Song Thrush (it looks more so 

 than the foot-rule shows it really is), and much darker in colour, approaching 

 in this respect that of a young Blackbird. The tarsi are very slightly 

 stouter than those of a Song Thrush ; they are very light-coloured, but the 

 legs of cage birds reared from the nest are apt to exhibit this peculiarity. 

 Irides dark brown. Upper mandible dark horn ; under mandible with 

 sides dull pale pink, rest dark horn. Gape very pale yellow ; inside of 

 mouth flesh, with strong tinge of pale yellow. Legs dull pale flesh. Top 

 of head and upper parts umber-brown, a greyish tinge on some of crown 

 feathers. Ear-coverts dark brown. From the nostrils round gape and over 

 eye, taking in lores, nearly black. Oval patch on chin, and upper throat, 

 pale drab. Throat, front of neck, and upper breast, nearly black. Sides 

 of neck brown, this colour running into the black in places. Feathers of 

 lower breast and belly nearly black, with narrow edging of light buffish 

 white. Lower belly pale drab to dirty white. Under tail-coverts brown. 

 Tail brown. Wing-quills hair-brown on outer web, rest dark brown. 

 Coverts light brown, marked irregularly with yellow-buff and nearly black. 

 I dissected the body, which seemed healthy. There is, of course, a possi- 

 bility of the bird being merely a melanitic variety of the Song Thrush, 

 but it is not only in colour that it differs from the type of that species ; the 

 slightly larger beak and slightly stouter tarsi, and the general resemblance 

 of the head — in shape as well as colour — to that of a Blackbird, must 

 be taken into account. Upon the subject of the interbreeding of the 

 Blackbird and Song Thrush, readers may be referred to two papers by 

 Mr. Miller Christy, in the ' Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Naturalists' Society,' in which records of all the supposed instances 

 have been brought together and discussed. — 0. V. Aplin (Bloxham, 

 Banbury, Oxon). 



Birds of the Isle of Man.— In Mr. Ralfe's list (pp. 93—100), the 

 Chiffchaff, amongst other species, is stated to be absent from the Manx 

 avifauna; so I presume that it is excluded also from Mr. Kermode's list. 

 On April 18th, 1882, I heard and saw a Chiffchaff in full song in the 

 Nunnery Grounds, near Douglas. I also recollect being told by my 

 brother, Mr. John D. Moffat, in the spring of 1874, that he had heard one 

 in a glen near Bemahague. As to the Blue Titmouse, also omitted from 

 the Manx list, this, I am sure, is merely a case of extermination within 

 recent years. Mr. J. D. Moffat occasionally saw this bird in the neighbour- 

 hood of Onchan between 1872 and 1874. The Bullfinch, referred to 

 among the birds which are " either very uncommon or of exceptional 

 occurrence," is, I believe, still resident in the island. One was seen near 

 the Isle of Man Asylum in 1887 by Mr. Hugh H. Moffat, as he informed 





