_Redwing's Nest_ (Vol. iii., p. 408.).--I think that upon further
consideration C. J. A. will find his egg to be merely that of a
blackbird. While the eggs of some birds are so constant in their
markings that to see one is to know all, others--at the head of which we
may place the sparrow, the gull tribe, the thrush, and the
blackbird--are as remarkable for the curious variety of their markings,
and even of the shades of their colouring. And every schoolboy's
collection will show that these distinctions will occur in the same
nest.
I also believe that there has been some mistake about the nest, for
though, like the thrush, the blackbird coats the interior of its nest
with mud, &c., it does not, like that bird, leave this coating exposed,
but adds another lining of soft dried grass.