thk blackbirds. 
253 
and two more eggs were laid precisely similar to the first, and 
evidently by the same bird 
Eggs.— From four to six .n number. The eggs vary to any 
extent in colour and shape. The ground-colour is greenish- 
blue and the overlying markings are reddish-brown, arranged 
as spots or blotches, sometimes so thickly that the egg appears 
reddish but the blotches are often collected at the larger end. 
From this type of egg, which is the ordinary one, every varia- 
tion seems to take place, some eggs being so minutely spotted 
with reddish-brown as to recall those of the Jay, while not 
unfrequently they are so sparsely spotted as to appear almost 
entirely blue, and are sometimes actually blue. _ 1 hose in a 
clutch from Waterford, in the Seebohm collection, have the 
ground-colour white instead of blue, and the markings light 
reddish-brown. (Plate xxxi., fig. 6.) 
the ring ouzel, merui.a torquata. 
Turdus torqualws , Linn., Syst. Nat., i. ; p. 296 (1766) ; Macg., 
Br. B., ii., P- 100 (1839);, Newt, ed Yarr., 1., p 287 
(1872) : Dresser, B. Eur., ii., p. n 3 > P' s - X L \5 ( lS 72 ) > 
B O U. List Br. B., p. 5 (1883) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Br. 
B, pt. i (1885) ; Saunders, Man., p. 15 (1889). 
Merula torquata , Seeb., Cat. B. Brit. Mus., v., p. 246 (1881) , 
id. Br. B., i., p. 243(1883). 
Adult Male. — General colour above sooty-black, the lessei 
wing-coverts like the back ; median- and greater coierts, 
primary-coverts, and quills brownish-black, with narrow fringes 
of ashy on the outer web, scarcely visible on the bastard-wing 
feathers, which are blackish ; tail-feathers blackish-brown , with 
a slight fringe of whitish at the tips of the feathers , sides of 
head, throat, and under suriace of body sooty-black with 
narrow whitish margins to the feathers of the breast and 
abdomen, thighs and under tail-coverts; across the fore-neck a 
broad band of white, slightly shaded with brown, and reaching 
to the sides of the neck; under wing-coverts and ax, l anes 
a dry-brown, barred with dull white at the ends and towards the 
tips of the feathers; quills dusky below, ashy along the inner 
webs; bill yellow; feet and claws brown; 111s daik biown. 
