208 OBSERVATIONS ON A PAIR OF BLACKBIRDS. 



Yet he lingered about the neighbourhood, and was fed by his 

 parents for some time longer, and was soon joined by the 

 other two. 



Their flight at first was a very clumsy performance, and 

 they were very loath to trust themselves on the wing, and 

 perhaps it was this fact that made them so tame. One of 

 them hopping on the ground near my sister's feet was 

 frightened by the approach of the terrier, and flew on to her 

 hat for refuge. 



We thought we had taken a final farewell of the family 

 group, when the young ones were strong in flight ; but early 

 in October the whole family appeared on the lawn, Father 

 AVhitehead, the mother, and the three young birds, who had 

 not yet moulted out into their respective plumage, and whose 

 sex was therefore indistinguishable ; but I think that I could 

 make out on the neck of one of them a faint prophecy of a 

 white patch inherited from his father. 



I have here the nest built on the ivy-coveredwall. Root- 

 fibres, leaves, twigs, and grass are the materials of its com- 

 position ; and in the middle of the walls will be found a 

 layer of clay as a protection from the cold wind. 



There is a popular fallacy to the effect that birds live in 

 their nests ; but this is not so, the nest is merely a cradle or 

 nursery for rearing their young ones, and when once the 

 nestlings have flown, they never return to the place of their 

 birth. 



I have been much struck with the easy character of the 

 blackbird's life in showery weather in the sammer. In the 

 morning he is waked by the sun and he breaks out into song, 

 and as the light increases he redoubles his efforts and floods 

 the air with melody. Fancy the pleasure of pouring out 

 those flute-like notes from a tree top on a sunny morning, 

 with the dew-spangled grass beneath and the blue vault 



