BLACKBIRD. 7 



tapping to come up and see what is the matter. In 

 the summer, however, he is a shocking thief with the 

 fruit, and so he is frequently shot down by the 

 gardener. The late poet laureate, Tennyson, was 

 apparently very fond of the Blackbird, and seems to 

 have allowed him to thieve undisturbed : — 



Oh, blackbird ! sing me something well : 

 While all the neighbours shoot thee round, 

 I keep smooth plots of fruitful ground, 



Where thou may'st warble, eat, and dwell. 



The Blackbird is one of the first birds to begin 

 building its nest. It is generally easily seen. Placed 

 about four feet from the ground in some hedge or copse, 

 or thick bush, it very much resembles the Missel 

 Thrush's in appearance. The outside is perhaps 

 more untidy, made of grass, straws, stalks, fern and a 

 little moss ; this is lined with mud and clay, which 

 again is covered inside with grass. The eggs are four 

 or five in number, pale greenish blue, speckled and 

 blotched with reddish-brown. We all know the look 

 of the Blackbird's egg, and are sure we could distin- 

 guish it from any other sort. You may therefore be 

 surprised to learn that sometimes they very much 

 resemble a Thrush's. At one of our School Exhibitions 

 a few years ago a number of Thrush's and Blackbird's 

 eggs were shown arranged in a line, and it certainly 

 would have required an experienced naturalist to say 

 where the Blackbird's ended and the Thrush's com- 

 menced ; at each end of the line, where the ordinary 

 normal egg was shown, of course there was no mistaking 

 them ; but since Blackbirds and Thrushes both occa- 

 sionally lay plain bluish eggs without any markings 

 upon them, it can be easily understood that the 

 division between the two was not very clear. 



