Why is this my attempt of spawning endless Threads stopping at 4?

I have this simple code in Java 8:

class ThreadTest {
    void threadTest() {
        new Thread(this::threadTest).start();
        System.out.println(Thread.activeCount());
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new ThreadTest().threadTest();
    }
}

and I was pretty much expecting to see very large numbers getting printed. All I see in the console is:

4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4

I said maybe I am not able to see others for whatever reason and modified the code as below:

class ThreadTest {
    void threadTest() {
        new Thread(this::threadTest).start();
        if (Thread.activeCount() > 4) {
            System.out.println(Thread.activeCount());
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new ThreadTest().threadTest();
    }
}

and now nothing gets printed.

What am I missing here?