58G ON THE INTEKBREEDING OF BLACKBIHU AND THRUSH. 
“ Sonif! days af^o at Warley, three Blackbird’s eggs were placed in a 
Thrush’s nest, which already contained five eggs. All the eggs were hatched 
by the female Thrush, and the young birds were successfully reared, the 
nest being full to overflowing.” 
Case Xo. XXVII. seems a good deal lilce an instance of unaccount- 
able variation in the nesting habits of the Thrush. 
Cases Xos. XXII., XXIII., and XXVIll. look, however, very like 
good and reliable cases of interbreeding. As regards the first of the 
three, it may be remarked that the Kev. J. C. Atkinson is too good 
a naturalist to make any mistake between a Blackbird and a Thrush. 
The second of the three may possibly have been an instance of the 
two species laying in the same nest, but the third seems unobjec- 
tionable. 
To sum up, it seems to me, as I have already said, that there arc 
reasonably good grounds for believing the Blackbird and the 
Thrusli to have occasionally interbred in a state of nature. It is 
quite true that some objection may be raised against almost every 
one of the cases brought forward, but, on the other hand, the cases 
cited are so numerous that it is unlikely that they are all spurious. 
As an old saying has it: “Where there is much smoke, there must 
be some fire.” 
Still the fact cannot be forgotten that not a single one of tlie 
twenty-eight supposed cases has come directly and personally under 
the notice of an ornithologist of unquestioned authority, and has 
been by him carefully observed and investigated. In almost every 
case the occurrence is reported second hand. 
Again, the absence, so far as I am aware, of any records of tlic 
occurrence in a state of nature of any individual birds supposed to 
be hybrids between a Blackbird and a Thrush is another damaging 
feature, hlelanistic varieties, however, seem not uncommon among 
the Thrushes, and some of these may possibly be hybrids with the 
Blackbird. For instance, the Rev. If. A. klacpherson of Carlisle 
mentions (‘Zoologist,’ 1883, p. 377) an example of the Missel 
Thrush whicli had lived a year in confinement, and which had the 
breast and upper parts entirely black, while the wings were black, 
edged with buff. 
Mr. J. If. Curney, Jun., writes me that lie ha.s re-examined the 
bird alluded to in my former article (case Xo. XVI.), and gives 
