14 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



it from other allied forms, is that it possesses fourteen tail 

 feathers, instead of twelve, which is the normal number in 

 birds of this genus. 



BLACKBIRD. 

 Turdus merula (/.). 



Resident, common, generally distributed. An influx of immigrants 

 o:curs in autumn. 



'riie first allusion to this species in Yorkshire is by the 

 celebrated Marmaduke Tunstall (1783), who referred to pied 

 specimens of Blackbirds in his possession. (Sec varieties at 

 end of this chapter.) 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : — 



Turdus merula. — Blackbird — Equally common with the above 

 (Song Thrush). A male Blackbird paired this season with a female 

 Thrush in my o^-n aviary (York). The Thrush built the nest and laid 

 ©le egg, when things were put a stop to by a Wood Pigeon, which had 

 formerly built its nest in precisely the same place. 



The Blackbird is a common and generally distributed 

 resident, occurring at a considerable elevation in the moorland 

 and fell districts. The late Canon J, C. Atkinson observed 

 that foraging parties of these birds go up from the dales to 

 the moors in autumn, and picnic there for ten days or a 

 fortnight, while the bilberries are ripe (" Moorland Parish," 

 p. 321). In addition to this it is a winter visitant, or an 

 autumn bird of passage, immigrant Blackbirds arriving on 

 our coast at dates varying from late September to the end 

 of November ; but they are usually most abundant during 

 the last fortnight of October, when, along with Fieldfares 

 and Redwings, they frequently perish during fog at the 

 I '.nterns of our sea-marks, for their migrations are chiefly 



