9 
the right wing had been torn out, and a wound inflicted on the chest. This damage was being 
repaired by a moult, and it is curious to note that the new feathers were those of the young plumage 
of the first autumn. 
Adult female. Differs from the male. Above dark olive-brown ; the wing-coverts like the 
back; the quills sepia-brown, externally washed with dark olive; tail blackish-brown ; lores dusky, 
surmounted with a slight shade of ashy; ear-coverts dusky brown, with narrow whitish shaft-lines ; 
cheeks and throat pale ashy, thickly streaked with broad black centres to the feathers; fore-neck 
and chest more reddish-brown, shading off into dusky grey on the breast and abdomen and into 
olive оп the flanks, the lower flanks and under tail-coverts being dark ashy brown; the fore-neck 
and chest spotted with black triangular tips to the feathers, which have obsolete whitish shaft-lines ; 
thighs brown; under wing-coverts and axillaries dull ashy brown ; quillining paler ashy. Total 
length 10 inches, culmen 0:95, wing 5:0, tail 9:6, tarsus 1°35. 
Among the female Blackbirds there seems to be a greater variation than among the males, and 
the younger birds in their first winter appear to be more rufous, the black spotting on the throat 
and breast being very distinct. At the same time it is evident that the female Blackbirds incline 
generally to а rufous phase, in which the greyish colour of the throat and chest is replaced 
by rufous. 
The older birds become blackish above instead of olive-brown, and a cindery shade pervades the 
whole of the under surface, the throat alone being greyish-white with black spots and streaks, 
which become more or less obsolete on the breast, where they are either represented by blackish 
triangular spots or by black centres to the feathers. Тһе grey of the breast and abdomen is 
obscured by ashy-white margins after the autumn moult; but these edgings gradually become 
abraded, leaving the under surface of the body much darker. 
Тһе bill is at first dark brown, but in old birds it becomes nearly as yellow as in the males. 
The species undoubtedly varies considerably in size, the specimens from Western Europe being 
smaller than those from Eastern Europe and Central Asia (M. intermedia). This will be seen from 
the following measurements of the wings of the specimens in the British Museum :— 
M. merula. 
Males. Females. 
Great Виа e en 4:8-5:95 4:7-5:05 
France i АА ИДЕ oa] 475-495 
Holland а st E TT 4:95 a 
Helgoland! wg, GG COR 505-52 4:9-5:2 
Hunsary о s 5:0 49 
о 49 
Роса 48 пр 
Azores Желе На an ss 4:9-5:0 45 
Madeira К 4:9-5:1 47-49 
Canaries ет теат nen 48-51 кер 
tumis io e Ол 225 49 
Marocco а реа tas Duc STE 5:0 fe: 
Parestine We s а а 4:85-4:9 48 
Asia Minot ee e 49 
ее > 49 
Vioronesch as о. 5:3 51 
Persia r a та 5:05-5:2 
VOL. II. 4 
