The Java® Virtual Machine Specification, Java SE 7 Edition, Third Edition

3.8. Working with Class Instances

Java Virtual Machine class instances are created using the Java Virtual Machine’s new instruction. Recall that at the level of the Java Virtual Machine, a constructor appears as a method with the compiler-supplied name <init>. This specially named method is known as the instance initialization method (§2.9). Multiple instance initialization methods, corresponding to multiple constructors, may exist for a given class. Once the class instance has been created and its instance variables, including those of the class and all of its superclasses, have been initialized to their default values, an instance initialization method of the new class instance is invoked. For example:

Object create() {    return new Object(); ...