thinness which Professor Newton ascribes to the decay and falling off of the cortex.

The counties in which examples have occurred are, Nottinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Suffolk, Sussex, and Norfolk; and one has been obtained at Athlone in Ireland. In Norfolk five, if not seven, have occurred. We have not the dates of all, but three occurred in November, one in December, two in March, and one in April. Those dates show that some of the birds had passed through more than one moulting period, and that they cannot be all young birds, as I at first supposed. Neither are they all of one sex; as the two Norwich examples were male and female by dissection. These two, though obtained twenty years apart, were shot in the same parish, I believe. I may here remark that there is nothing to indicate that it is an hereditary variety; though it is not unlikely in the case of the Norwich (Nos. 6 and 11 in the list given below) and the Sussex examples (Nos. 8 and 10)-the

VOL. III.

R R

latter having been obtained in parishes only five miles apart-that the same birds were the parents in both cases. It would be quite impossible to reconcile the theory of an hereditary variety with the moult theory.

In the following list, I have prefixed a dagger (†) to those I have examined. Should any one who reads these pages happen to know of any other specimens, I should be very glad to be informed of them.

1. Whittlesford, Cambridgeshire. Seen in the flesh many years ago, by Mr. F. Bond, but not preserved.

2. Bramford, Suffolk. December, 1847.

+3.

+4.

Zoologist,' p. 2067.

Buckenham, Norfolk. November, 1857. In the Cambridge
Museum. Formerly in Professor Newton's possession. This
is the specimen I have figured.

? Burston, Norfolk. Possibly identical with two of the others.
? Ditto.
Vide' Birds of Norfolk' (l.c.).

Ludham, Norfolk. In the Norwich Museum. This is smaller than the other specimens, which are all the size of an ordinary Moorhen.

5. Yarmouth, Norfolk. In the Saffron Walden Museum. This specimen is now much faded.

+ 6.

9, Norwich. March, 1863. In Mr. H. Stevenson's collection. 7. Blackwater, Hampshire. ? 1860. The same mentioned by Mr. Stevenson as having been sent to Reading to be stuffed (l.c.). In the collection of Mr. F. Bond.

+8. Plumpton, near Brighton. November, 1878. In Sir John Crewe's collection. This is the lightest I have seen, the underparts being quite white, and the back a bright orange-red; and the texture of its plumage is the most hairlike.

+9. Nottinghamshire. 1880. In Mr. J. Whitaker's collection. I understand that a figure of it is to appear in Moseley's 'British Birds,' now publishing.

+10. Isfield, Sussex.? March, 1883. In the possession of Colonel King.

+11., Norwich. April, 1883. T. E. Gunn, 'Zoologist,' 1884, p. 8. This is the darkest and the nearest to the normal Moorhen both in colour and texture. It was exhibited at a meeting of the Linnean Society, March 6th, 1884.

12. Athlone, Ireland. November, 1883.

In almost, if not quite every species of British bird, white or pied individuals are recorded to have been found; but the Moorhen alone seems to be subject to this hairlike variation of plumage. It is, however, not free from partial albinism; and a few such instances have come under my notice; but the feathers have been of the normal texture, or very nearly so. I have a pied Moorhen, killed at Peterborough; two have been obtained in Norfolk; and Mr. John Marshall has two, of which he has been good enough to send me coloured sketches. Between those birds and the subject of this paper there is no connection.

Through the kindness of Professor Newton, I am able to illustrate these few notes with a plate by Mr. Keulemans of the bird in the Cambridge Museum (No. 3). The frontal shield has apparently shrunk away; but, as I suppose it must have been there when the bird was alive twenty-seven years ago, I have had it copied, together with the colour of the legs and beak, from some of the more recent specimens.* The woodcuts at page 583 represent a flank feather and a middle tail-feather (Figs. 4 and 5), with corresponding feathers from an ordinary adult Moorhen (Figs. 6 and 7) for comparison.†

*For the partially diagramatic drawing from which Figs. 1, 2, and 3 (p. 583) were engraved, and for the explanation of the figures I am indebted to Mr. F. Kitton, Hon. F. R. M.S.

+ Mr. Kitton having been good enough to make a microscopical examination of some feathers of the white Asiatic Silky Fowl (alluded to at p. 584), I append some remarks by him: "The shaft of the Silky Fowl's feather tapers to a point as delicate as those of the barbs and near the apex has the appearance of white horsehair. It is barbed nearly to the tip, the barbs are sometimes branched (bifid and trifid) and traces of barbules are not infrequent up to the apex, the latter becoming more developed as the barb approaches its point of attachment to the shaft, where they become jointed like a Bamboo." Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier says that the silky character of the feathers is one which occasionally occurs in other breeds of fowls, as in the Cochin ('Poultry Book,' p. 221).

II.

DO THE BLACKBIRD AND THE THRUSH EVER

INTERBREED?

BY ROBERT MILLER CHRISTY.

(Communicated by Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun.).

Read 27th November, 1883.

BOTH Addison and Goldsmith seem to have been of the opinion that the trite old saying, "Birds of a feather flock together," applied also invariably to their breeding. The former, more than a century and a half ago, wrote, in the 'Spectator,' some elegant Latin lines upon the subject; and, later, Goldsmith produced a short poem, which seems to be merely an expression of Addison's sentiment in the English language. He says:

* The patriot bird pursues

His well-acquainted tints and kindred hues ;
Hence, through their tribes, no mixed, polluted flame,
No monster breed, to mark the groves with shame ;
But, the chaste Blackbird, to his partner true,
Thinks black alone is Beauty's favourite hue."

Experience has, however, compelled me to call in question a little the correctness of the opinion of these poetic gentlemen, that one bird is invariably true to its own species; for it is now some years since my attention was drawn to the fact, that, there is evidence which proves that the Blackbird and the Thrushtwo species which rather closely resemble one another in their size, habits, and manner of nesting-do occasionally pair and nest together.

Since that time, I have always been careful to note down any such occurrences as have come under my own observation, or that I have seen recorded in any ornithological work; and, in order to draw attention to the subject, I have now put together all the information so obtained for the purpose of sifting it.

I. A nest, built in a Laurel bush, in the garden of a relative at Great Saling, Essex, was reported to me in the first week of April, 1877, by the finder, who assured me that, of the six eggs the nest contained, two were undoubtedly Thrushes', two were unmistakably Blackbirds', and two were precisely intermediate in their colouring. The bird was not noted. I did not see the eggs; but, two months later, I was shown the nest-a typical Thrush's.

II. During May, 1877, a friend found a nest in private grounds near York. It was almost without mud, and evidently a Blackbird's; but, of the four eggs which it contained, two were certainly Thrush's, and the remaining two Blackbirds'. The eggs I saw, but not the nest. There was no suspicion or probability of any one having exchanged the eggs.

III. A few weeks later, and in the same grounds, I found a normal Blackbird's nest, containing four well-fledged young Thrushes. The parents, too, were both of that species.

IV. In Loudon's 'Magazine of Natural History'* the following appears under heading, "Hybrid Birds between the Throstle and the Blackbird in a state of Nature:"-" With respect to the Throstle, I recollect a singular instance. In the garden of James Hankin, a nurseryman, at Ormskirk in Lancashire, a Throstle and Blackbird had paired. This was well known to a number of individuals, myself amongst them. During two successive years the birds reared their broods, which were permitted to fly, and evinced in all respects the features of strongly-marked hybrids.—Henry Berry, Bootle, near Liverpool, August 27th, 1834."

V. In 'Science Gossip,'+ "G. T. B.” says that, in the beginning of the preceding April, he found a Blackbird's nest nearly built. Several days later he found it to contain four eggs, which were, in all respects, true Blackbirds', except that one possessed the black spots of a Thrush's egg as well as the Blackbird's markings. On one occasion a Thrush was observed sitting, when a Blackbird was singing close by. Only one young one survived, and that turned out a Blackbird, but the old Thrush was very solicitous on its behalf.+

*Vol. vii., 1834, p. 598.

November, 1877, p. 263.

This record was reprinted (I suppose for the sake of reference) in almost exactly the same words, before another note on the same subject (see Case VI.) in 'Science Gossip' for February, 1878, p. 43.