EUROPEAN BLACKBIRD 79 



addicted to noisy vocal assaults on owls. The gait on the ground 

 consists of short runs or a succession of quick hops followed by a 

 pause and then repeated. Od alighting the tail is elevated with an 

 easy and graceful motion, and the same movement may be seen in a 

 lesser degree when it halts on the ground. Though much of its food 

 is secured in the open it is seldom far from hedges or other shelter 

 and readily retires into or underneath bushes and similar cover. It 

 also regularly obtains food by turning over dead leaves in woods, 

 hedge bottoms, etc., chiefly with the bill, but also at times with the 

 feet. Generally speaking, it is not much given to long or high flights 

 and when merely flying across a lawn or from one bit of cover to 

 another close at hand the action! often appears rather flitting and 

 weak, but over longer distances this is less noticeable and the flight, 

 as 1 have described it in the "Handbook of British Birds" (1938, vol. 2), 

 is "direct or only slightly undulating, with occasional closure of wings 

 often too rapid to be conspicuous, but at times more marked." 



Though in its communal displays and at roosts it shows a definite 

 social tendency, the blackbird is never really gregarious except when 

 migrating. 



Voice. — The blackbird is one of the most pleasing songsters among 

 European birds, and American observers in the Old World have 

 remarked a distinct family similarity to the song of the robin. It has a 

 rich mellow quality and is delivered with an easy, unhurried fluency 

 which is a part of its charm — the very spirit of a peaceful English 

 garden. It is uttered in short warbling phrases in which separate 

 notes cannot usually be distinguished, generally of about 2 to 4 

 seconds' duration, but occasionally 5 to 8 seconds or even more 

 (Nicholson, 1936), with pauses of several seconds between each. 

 Though the phrases are of the same general type, there is much varia- 

 tion in detail; there are no set forms, though the same phrases recur in 

 each bird's repertoire. A weakness is a tendency for some of them to 

 tail off into a feeble and rather ignominious ending of subdued, creaky, 

 chuckling notes, which, however, are not audible for very far. The 

 song post selected is usually a fairly elevated one, commonly a tree, 

 not rarely the roof of a house or some other building, occasionally a 

 mere bush or fence. It is not unusual for the bird to utter one of its 

 short phrases as it flies a little way to a fresh perch, and it may even 

 sing on the ground. Occasionally song may be heard at night. As 

 mentioned in an earlier section, the song begins later in the season than 

 in many resident birds. In the south of England and the midlands 

 it is not regular until late in February, though occasional song may be 

 heard earlier in the month, and it continues into July, declining and 

 usually ceasing before the end of the month. The subsong has been 

 described as "a low, continuous sweet but rather tentative stumbling 



