134 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



the destruction of the slugs and insects which affect 

 the growing plants, the Thrush runs up an account 

 with the gardener which may fairly be set against 

 that of the berries which it consumes in autumn, 

 and which it may properly claim to have helped 

 to rear. 



The Blackbird, the " ouzel cock with tawny bill," 

 is, with the exception of the Song Thrush, the most 

 familiarly know^n of the British Thrushes. It is 

 usually seen singly or in pairs, and although less 

 confiding than the Song Thrush, it constantly resorts 

 to the shrubberies and orchards surrounding Eng- 

 lish homesteads. Its food consists largely of 

 worms, slugs and insects, and it unquestionably 

 does great damage in the fruit season, especially 

 amidst the gooseberry bushes and the strawberry 

 beds, its depreciations being more considerable 

 than those of any of the other Thrushes. I have 

 watched a Blackbird return, time after time, to a 

 single bush, and rapidly denude it of fruit, tearing 

 the berries from the stem, and allowing them to fall 

 upon the ground, when it would descend and 

 partially devour them, or if disturbed, carry them 

 away. At this season its appetite appears to be 

 insatiable. In common with its congeners, it is 

 especially fond of the red berries of the mountain 

 ash. Throughout the whole day numbers of Black- 

 birds and Thrushes will assemble about a single 

 tree, fluttering heavily amidst the foliage and alight- 

 ing upon the sprays to which the clustering berries 

 are attached, the slender stems bending low beneath 

 their weight. 



