80 BULLETIN 19 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



performance, sometimes mellow * * * sometimes including the 

 blackbird's alarm cry 'mocked' in a less spirited tone * * * and 

 often breaking out into * * * repetitions of the same note." It 

 may be used in display and also in an aggressive context in territorial 

 disputes. 



On human analogies the blackbird's song might seem to suggest a 

 placid and easy-going temperament, but some of its other vocal per- 

 formances would not at all bear out such an impression. When 

 disturbed, but not seriously alarmed, the note is a low tchook, tchook, 

 tchook. But it is easily startled and on remarkably little provocation 

 it dashes off in a momentary panic with an excited, screaming clamor 

 which is quite as characteristic as the song. This so-called " alarm- 

 rat tie" — though it is not really a rattle at all — has a well-defined 

 pattern, though subject to much variation in detail. Very commonly 

 it begins with the tchook notes, rises in a crescendo of shriller notes 

 in quick succession, and dies away again in tchooks, so that a typical 

 version might be rendered tchook, tchook, tchook-a, tchwee, tchewee- 

 cheweecheweecheweechewee, tchook, tchook. But the tchooks may also 

 be omitted. Occasionally a slightly quieter version may even be 

 given on the ground. Another note, often uttered with tiresome 

 persistence when the birds are going to roost, is a monotonous chick- 

 chick-chick * * *, and it is also this note which is used as a scold against 

 owls, cats, and other objects of its resentment. A thin tsee is a less 

 frequently heard but not uncommon call used chiefly by the male — 

 in fact I cannot recall having heard it from a female — and a high, rapid 

 tinkling titter has been heard from the female during courtship. The 

 fledged young have a curious, rather shrill tsee-tsee-tsee-tseep, which is 

 retained for some time after they are full grown and is a familiar 

 garden sound in early summer. 



Field marks.— The European blackbird is a bird of the size and some- 

 what the same form and build as the robin of America. The male is 

 quite unmistakable with his smart glossy black plumage and orange- 

 yellow bill. The female and young are less distinctive. They are 

 obviously birds of the thrush group, but considerably darker than any 

 American thrush. The female is umber-brown, the underparts some- 

 what lighter, usually inclined to rufous, with more or less distinct 

 dark mottlings, and a paler, more whitish, throat. The chief dis- 

 tinctions of the young birds from the adult female have been noted 

 under "plumages." 



Enemies. — Although owing to its rather skulking habits it is perhaps 

 less frequently taken than some other species, the blackbird is never- 

 theless one of the commoner victims of the (European) sparrow hawk 

 (Accipiter nisus), and it is recorded in the dietary of other hawks. 

 The nestlings not uncommonly fall victims to jays, magpies, stoats, 



