20 Order I 



resident. With us it ranges even to Shetland, and 

 occurs fairly high on the hills, the well-known mud- 

 lined nest being occasionally placed on the ground, but 

 generally in trees and shrubs. It lays from four to six 

 blue eggs with black or brownish spots. Except during 

 the moult the song may be heard at any season, while 

 the bird has its first brood exceptionally early in the 

 year. The food consists of berries and insects, worms, 

 slugs, and snails, especially the last, which are usually 

 smashed on some favourite stone. 



The Blackbird (T, merula) is so called from the cock, 

 which is black with orange bill, while everyone knows 

 that the hen and young are dull brown with the bill 

 dusky. When feeding on the ground this species has 

 not quite the " hop and run " action of the thrush, but 

 its food is the same and its flight similar. It is, how- 

 ever, a bird of lower levels, constantly flushed from 

 hedgerows or bushes, and less often sitting on tree-tops 

 to sing. The song is comparatively flute-like and 

 mellow. The nest of dry grass and mud, with grass 

 lining, contains about five green eggs with small rufous 

 markings, and is placed at no great height from the 

 ground or even on it. Common throughout Britain and 

 a partial migrant, the Blackbird is not found outside 

 Europe, except in Asia Minor, Palestine, and north-west 

 Africa, with the Atlantic islands. 



In the hilly moorlands from Cornwall and Wales to 

 northern England and Scotland it is represented by the 

 Ring-ousel or Hill-blackbird {T. torquatus), character- 

 ized by the white chest, less conspicuous in the female 

 and still less in the young, and also by the yellowish 

 bill with black tip. This migratory species arrives 

 about April and leaves us by October, with the exception 



