28 THE BLACKBIRD. 



The Blackbird is very hardy, and does not readily suc- 

 cumb even in the severest weather, when, accompanied by 

 long-continued frost, a " lying-storm " sets in, and the — 



Blinding flakes, by day, by night, 

 In thickening showers descend. 



Grahame, January. 



In the terrible winters of 1878-79, 1879-80, and 1880-81, 

 however, numbers perished, while they were noticed to be 

 scarce in the following springs,-^ and did not recover their 

 ordinary numbers until about 1883. Piebald and albino 

 examples are occasionally seen in the county, but are of 

 rare occurrence.^ Major Dorling, Duns, informs me that 

 a cream-coloured bird, with a yellow bill, frequented the 

 shrubbery at the south end of Duns Castle lake in the 

 spring of 1886 ; and Mr. Charles Watson mentioned to me 

 that he had sometimes noticed the same bird in his garden. 

 It was caught under a sieve or " riddle " by a person in 

 Duns, in the end of December 1886, and given to Mr. Hay 

 of Duns Castle, who kept it for some months in an aviary, 

 where it died. Mr. John Fulton, salmon fisher, Milne 

 Graden, told me on the 17th of January 1888, that, during 

 the fishing season of 1887, a white or cream-coloured Black- 

 bird frequented "Keppie" Island, which is below "Dreeper " 

 Island, on the Tweed at Milne Graden. An ash-coloured 

 specimen is recorded as having been seen by Dr. Stuart of 



1 Mr. Hardy, Oldcambus, in a paper on the efl'ects of the winter of 1878-79, 

 mentions that several Blackbirds were found dead in his locality. — Hist. Ber. 

 Nat. Club. vol. ix. pp. 123-130. On referring to my own notes on the subject, 

 I observe that one or two were found dead in the neighbourhood of Paxton, in 

 January 1881, from the effects of the severe weather. Mr. Hardy, writing 

 on 8th Feb. 1879, says : — " Three Blackbirds appeared in the garden— the 

 only ones left," and adds, that in the spring of 1880 they had not recovered 

 their old numbers. Dr. Stuart, Chirnside, writes under date 6th March 1879 : — 

 "The winter has been unprecedentedly severe and protracted: Blackbirds and 

 Thrushes have got a great thinning." — Hist. Ber. Nat. Club. vol. ix. pp. 133-136. 



' A popular remark in France when any one promises to undertake an impos- 

 sible task is : "Si vous faites celaje vous donnerai un Merle blanc."— Holland, 

 Faune Populaire dc la France, t. ii. ; Les Oiseaux Sauvages, p. 248. 



