180 
in height, the diameter of the cup being 90, and the depth 50 millims. Usually it is well fastened 
to the bough, and is not easy to detach, the more so as the trees on which it is built are usually 
slender and tall and the branches thin. Early in June the female lays four or five, seldom 
six, eggs, and incubation commences at once. Whilst the female is sitting, the male remains 
at some distance, and in halting, uncertain tones utters its by no means melodious song, which 
consists of a strophe continually repeated ; and it sings more industriously in the morning and 
at sunset. The female sits close, but is difficult to shoot on the nest, as it is so hidden in 
the boughs, and when disturbed she slips off and does not soon return. When the young 
are hatched the old birds attack any intruder. Тһе eggs resemble those of the Blackbird and 
Fieldfare, and are subject to considerable variation, even in the same clutch. The ground-colour 
is pale blue, blue-greenish, or dirty blue with a yellowish tinge; and the markings consist of 
violet-brown shell-blotches and dark olive-brown or rusty-red surface spots. The eggs are 
either irregularly spotted, sparingly or profusely, or also closely dotted with small spots; in 
shape they vary much, are short or long, stout or elongated, and more or less glossy, the pores 
of the shell being scarcely visible: the measurements are very variable—say 29 by 17:5 millimetres, 
25 by 18:5, 23-5 by 17:5, 27 by 20, 25:5 by 19:5, 30:5 by 20, 28:5 by 18:5." 
Adult male. General colour above olivaceous-brown, the wing-coverts like the back, the 
margins to the median and greater series slightly paler and more ashy; quills dusky brown, 
externally olive-brown like the back, the primary-coverts and primaries having a hoary-grey 
margin; centre tail-feathers dull ashy-grey, the others sepia-brown, externally greyish or olivaceous, 
the two outer tail-feathers edged with white along the tip of the inner web; crown of head 
and паре more slaty-grey, as also the ear-coverts; lores blackish, surmounted by a narrow 
line of white, which continues into a white eyebrow ; cheeks and throat slaty-grey, slightly 
mottled with white bases to the feathers; base of chin and a spot under the eye white ; 
chest fulvous-brown, becoming pale orange-buff on the sides of the body, and browner on the 
lower flanks and thighs; breast and abdomen, sides of vent, and under tail-coverts white, 
the latter with dusky-brown edges to the outer feathers; axillaries and under wing-coverts 
ashy, with narrow whitish margins; quills below dusky brown, with an ashy shade over the 
inner webs: “bill horny blackish-brown ; lower mandible (except the tip, which is dusky) 
tomia, and angle of mouth pale orange-yellow ; feet, including claws, clear yellowish-grey ; 
naked eye-ring and lower eyelash light yellowish-grey; iris dark brown" (Stejneger). Total 
length 8:5 inches, culmen 0:5, wing 4:95, tail 2:95, tarsus 1:25. 
The male described, though in full plumage, is of the ordinary colour of the adult, and 
it should be noted that fully-adult birds have a darker grey throat, perfectly uniform and united 
to the grey sides of the face. The orange-chestnut colour of the chest and sides of the body 
varies in intensity, and is much darker in some birds than in others. 
Adult female. Differs from the male in its paler coloration and white throat. The eyebrow 
is as distinct as in the male, and the ear-coverts are dark slaty-grey, with white shaft-lines ; 
eyebrow, a spot under the eye and below the lores, cheeks, and throat white, with a few streaks 
of brown in the middle of the latter, and with a somewhat well-defined malar band of dusky 
streaks; chest ashy-brown, tinged with cinnamon like the sides of the body; breast and abdomen 
white, as in the male: “bill black, the lower mandible greenish horny, yellow at the base; 
eyelid yellow; feet tawny-yellow; iris dark brown" (ЈУ. Davison). Total length 79 inches, 
culmen 0:8, wing 4-7, tail 9:4, tarsus 1:2. 
Immature males resemble the adult female. Тһе throat is white, with a few brown streaks. 
'There can, however, be little doubt that the male breeds in this hen-like dress. 
