EUROPEAN BLACKBIRD 219 



its plumage — black, white, and slaty gray 

 — and its stout bright-red bill made it con- 

 spicuous among its companions, and yet 

 apparently they who passed to and fro saw 

 it not. After the third day it disappeared. 

 There is no other explanation of the pre- 

 sence of this bird than that it had escaped 

 from a cage and found its way to the Com- 

 mon. 



IV. European Blackbird 



Planesticus merula 



In the autumn of 1908 a foreign bird 

 was discovered in the Garden when I made 

 my usual round on the morning of Oc- 

 tober 9, a bird appearing essentially like 

 our American robin in size and form, but 

 glossy black in coloration throughout, with 

 a bright yellow bill. The bird was none 

 other than a European Blackbird, a male 

 bird, doubtless escaped from captivity. It 

 was first seen in a Norway maple by the 

 pond, sitting quietly upon a bough, and it 

 permitted a careful inspection of itself to 

 be made from a position perhaps fifteen 



