BLACKBIRD. 
97 
grass. The eggs generally are bluish green, 
blotched with dull reddish markings. Plumage 
of the adult male entirely of a deep black, having 
the bill and eyelids of a rich orange yellow. In 
young birds, during winter, although the black 
colour has obtained on the whole plumage, the 
bill is not of the pure colour until the breeding 
time, but is more or less of an umber brown, the 
yellow gradually increasing. Length, from ten 
inches to ten and a half. 
The female, above is nearly umber brown ; the 
colour darker on the wings and tail. The throat 
is a dirty white, having the feathers in the centre 
umber brown, which runs downwards in streaks. 
The remaining under parts are yellowish umber 
brown, darkening in the centre, and at the tips of 
the feathers, and towards the vent and tail coverts, 
and on the breast tinted with rufous. The bill is 
umber brown tinted with the fine yellow of the 
male. The young are somewhat like the female, 
but have the plumage varied by darker waves 
again contrasted with those of a pale yellowish 
umber brown, but towards autumn those are 
thrown off, and the plain dress of the female but 
many shades darker, is succeeded. 
Varieties of almost a pure white occasionally 
occur, and from the marked contrast to the gene- 
ral colours either in this state or when much pied, 
is almost immediately noticed ; they sometimes 
also appear of a cream colour, and when either of 
this shade or pure white, in the female sex the 
differences in her shades of colour are observable 
G 
