BLACKBIRD 
9 
twenty or thirty feet up in a tree than a Black- 
bird's. Blackbirds also build not very uncommonly 
on a ledge or beam in a cowshed or outbuilding, 
while for a Thrush to nest " indoors " in this way 
is very rare indeed. The eggs, usually four or 
five in number, are pale greenish in ground 
colour, dappled, spotted, or closely speckled with 
greenish or reddish-brown. The size and number 
of the markings vary greatly, some eggs being 
thickly and closely freckled so as almost wholly 
to hide the ground-colour, others being splashed 
with ragged spots which leave the ground-colour 
clearly visible. The egg illustrated is of the 
commonest average type, and will be seen to in- 
cline rather to the former variety than the latter. 
It is also a little smaller than the average size. 
In spite of its many variations, it should not be 
easy to mistake the Blackbird's egg for any other, 
for since the Redwing and Fieldfare do not nest 
in this country, the only possible source of con- 
fusion is in the case of the Ring Ouzel, which is 
scarcely found except on mountains and moorlands, 
where the site of the nest distinguishes it from 
the Blackbird's, even if the bird itself is not 
observed. 
