SONG-THETJSH. BLACKBIED. 83 



in an ozier ground at Heigham, in 1850^ as late as tlie 

 3rd of June, and on the 9tli of tlie same month I picked 

 up one, very recently dead, in a garden on Bracondale, 

 which appeared to have been shot, having one leg broken. 

 Mr. H. E. Dresser, in the "Zoologist," p. 8484, states 

 that a fine albino specimen, seen by himself in the shop 

 of Mr. Wilson, bird preserver, of Lynn, was killed in 

 that neighb.ourhood in February, 1863. It was nearly 

 white, having only here and there faint cream coloured 

 markings. 



TURDUS MERULA, Linnaeus. 

 BLACKBLRD. 



Common throughout the year, and migratory speci- 

 mens apparently arrive in the autumn, but being a much 

 hardier species than the song-thrush, most of our 

 native birds remain throughout the sharpest winters. 

 However deep the snow or intense the frost, the alarm 

 note of the blackbird is still heard in our gardens and 

 shrubberies, as he scatters the flakes from the powdered 

 laurels in his hurried exit; or his jetty plumage con- 

 trasts with the white covering of the ground, when, 

 half running, half leaping, he leaves the well-known 

 imprint of his feet, diverging here and there as his 

 quick eye detects some chance morsel, till, head erect, 

 he listens to approaching footsteps, and then a Httle 

 scuffle in the snow, and the slight markings of his out- 

 spread wings show where he took to flight. White, buff, 

 and pied varieties, in almost every degree of albinism, 

 are not unfrequently met with. A very beautiful 



breeds at Lakenham every year ; its song is far superior to that 

 of the Throstle." I cannot but think that if this were really 

 correct, the fact would have been known to, and recorded long 

 ago by our many resident naturalists. 

 . H 2 



