122 The Irish Naturalist. November, 



On considering individual cases for two seasons along 

 with the general effect, the evidence seems to be that 

 Blackbird's song is not as a rule a concomitant in acquiring 

 territory or getting a mate, for normal April broods. 

 Whatever pre-egg song there is, is poor as described above. 

 Day song will probably improve at the time of egg-laying 

 or hatching out, but may not reach its best till about the 

 time young are out of the nest. At this time some courting 

 may be seen, but second broods are uncommon unless 

 there has been some disaster to the previous one (the 

 second clutch being laid up probably not later than May 

 20th) ; so that in this country any relation between May 

 song and second broods would be potential, not actual. 



I do not see any indication of an immigration of 

 Blackbirds here. I see no definite increase in the number 

 of singing sites or territories — so very different from the 

 case of the Thrushes. 



Among the Blackbirds round my house there are two 

 examples of strong individuality in song, the bird of one 

 territory singing prominently above others, the bird of 

 another territory hardly ever singing the whole season. 

 The same characteristic has persisted these two years in 

 the same two territories. 



Chaffinch. — I was not so intimate with the Chaffinches 

 this year as I had done them very thoroughly before. 

 Apart from general observation in the country, I dealt 

 with seven nests particularly and a couple of others near 

 me. Six had the first ^^g close to April 22nd. These were 

 normal broods. Three varied from a fortnight to a month 

 later. 



The first song this year was February 8th, by February 

 1 2th it was fairly general. But I thought Chaffinch's song 

 this year very poor all through the season. Territories 

 could not be defined with certainty (by song) till the 

 beginning of March. Courting was seen strong at the 

 end of February. By the end of March the better or the 

 only singers were those not clearly mated (nests were 

 then beginning). This was more pronounced in the 

 beginning of April when the mated birds hardly ever sang, 



