NOTES ON THE HABITS OF SOME COMMON BIRDS. 5 
i) | 
Sometimes we attach a few pieces of fat to a string, and fasten 
it to nails in the wall, so as to streteh it across an angle of the 
back-court. The titmice are very fond of fat, and often visit the 
suspended pieces. Seizing one of them by their feet, much after 
the manner of a parrot, they hang head downward and swing to 
and fro as they nibble away at the prized morsel. These acrobatic 
performances are highly amusing, and are repeated at frequent 
intervals until the supply of fat has been exhausted. 
BuacksirD (Z'urdus merula, Linn.). 
Although we should be sorry to miss the mellow note of this 
bird from the morning and evening chorus of feathered songsters, 
or dispense with its services in keeping worm and grub life within 
reasonable bounds, yet we cannot acquit it of the charge of being 
one of the most destructive of our garden visitors. Before the 
fruit has fairly ripened, it begins its career of depredation, which 
is maintained as long as there is anything left to be stolen. 
Apples, pears, plums, cherries, gooseberries, and strawberries, are 
all eagerly devoured wherever left unprotected by the net. Fully 
90 per cent. of the stolen fruit is taken by the blackbird, and only 
a small quantity by the song-thrush, while the missel-thrush is a 
comparatively trifling depredator. Another source of annoyance, 
attributable to the blackbird, arises from its habit of digging for 
worms and grubs. On the Ayrshire coast, where the soil is sandy, 
we have to put a good deal of manure into the ground, especially 
at the roots of rose bushes and in the flower beds. The blackbird 
digs a hole into the ground until it reaches the manure, which it 
picks out and scatters in the course of its search for worms and 
larve. Any annuals or other small plants which stand in the way 
are torn up by the roots or picked to pieces. In one of our flower 
borders, most of the plants in a row of blue Lobelia were repeatedly 
torn out, and had to be replanted morning after morning. 
Two or three summers ago I occasionally noticed a young hen 
blackbird feeding in one of the garden borders. As she seemed 
less timid than usual, I often used to feed her with crumbs, and 
sometimes dug up worms for her. As soon as she discovered that 
I could command an unfailing supply of worms, she became 
remarkably tame. Every forenoon she used to follow me to the 
potato-ground, and stand at a distance of two or three yards 
