378 A Blackbird mimicking a Nightingale. 



myself. He flies on the top of the stables, and watches our 

 motions through the window during breakfast, generally be- 

 tween 8 and 9 o'clock ; and, as soon as the meal is ended, he 

 descends into my yard to partake of the crumbs, with which 

 my children take great delight in feeding him. After he has 

 picked his, sometimes, " scanty meal," he amuses himself for 

 an hour or so, and then returns to his own premises, but pays 

 us another visit at dinner-time. If, at any time, he is not so 

 punctual as usual, great anxiety is manifested by my family, 

 and, I must confess, by myself too, for his welfare. After 

 dinner, we have sometimes supplied him with a bountiful meal, 

 which may, perhaps, be a strong inducement for him to con- 

 tinue his visits. All this is the effect of instinct ; but his con- 

 duct, within the last ten days, appears to be the result of fore- 

 thought. On an ample meal being placed before him, he has 

 manifested great anxiety for some of his fair companions to 

 partake of it with him : this he has strongly shown by taking 

 up pieces in his mouth, calling with loud anxiety, breaking 

 the pieces into smaller portions, and laying them down again ; 

 then pacing to and fro, as if in the expectation of the arrival 

 of some of his companions; renewing the dividing of the 

 larger pieces into smaller, and calling with increased anxiety. 

 On two occasions, he has left his meal untouched, so far as 

 regards eating any portion of it himself, returned to his own 

 premises, and brought a hen with him to share in his good 

 fortune. On the first occasion, the hen only accompanied 

 him to the top of the stable; but, on the second, she descended 

 and partook of the meal with him, which seemed to give him 

 very great pleasure : but, whether it was the same hen that 

 accompanied him the second time, I cannot positively say. — 

 W. H. White. London, Nov. 10. 1834. 



\The Blackbird, an Instance of its Mimicking a Nightingale 

 in its Song.'] — Are British birds given to the imitation of 

 each other? One morning last week [the date, as to time, 

 of the communication, is May 22. 1836.], at about two 

 o'clock, I was awaked by the singing of what I at first 

 thought was a nightingale among the trees, close by the house. 

 On going to the window, I found it was a blackbird, but, evi- 

 dently, in the act of mimicking a nightingale, which was war- 

 bling away most melodiously in an orchard at a short distance 

 below my garden. It was no despicable attempt either ; and, 

 if it should have the effect of enticing the nightingale nearer 

 my abode, which, it seems to me, was the blackbird's inten- 

 tion, I will forgive the impudence of my black friend, and 

 readily overlook sundry peccadilloes in the fruit line, which 

 have been, at divers times, laid to his charge. Did you ever 

 happen to hear of a similar mock-bravura case ? — S. Taylor. 



