TURDIN.t:. 



13 



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THE BLACKBIRD. 



TuRDUS MERULA, Linnseus. 



The Blackbird, "' the Ouzel-cock so black of hue " of Shakespeare, 

 is of general distribution throughout the British Islands, where it 

 ma)' be considered as a resident, excepting in some of the bleaker 

 islands ; but even in the Outer Hebrides it is increasing as a breeding- 

 species, and it now nests in Orkney, and is said to have done so in 

 Shetland, to which it is chiefly an autumn and winter visitor. Like 

 the Mistle-Thrush, and probably for the same reasons, the Blackbird 

 has spread northward and westward of late years ; in several places 

 supplanting the Ring-Ouzel : Avhile in addition to our native-bred 

 birds, some of which are partially migrator}-, large numbers visit 

 us in autumn and winter. 



In the Faroes the Blackbird has occurred in spring , it un- 

 doubtedly wandered to Iceland in the winter of 1877, and it has 

 been recorded from the island of Jan INIayen. About 67° N. lat. in 

 Norway appears to be its highest breeding-range ; south of which it 

 is found nesting down to the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, both 

 sides of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and even in the sultr}- 

 depths of the Ghor in Palestine. In Russia it does not appear to 



