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THE BLACKBIRD. 



TuRDUS MKRULA, Linn?eus. 



The Blackbird, " the Ouzel-cock so black of hue " of Shake- 

 speare, is of general distribution throughout the British Islands, 

 where it may be considered as a resident, excepting in some of the 

 Outer Hebrides and the Shetlands, to which it is chiefly an autumn 

 and winter visitor. Like the Missel-Thrush and probably for the 

 same reasons, the Blackbird has spread northward and westward of 

 late years ; in some places, as at Gairloch in Ross-shire, supplanting 

 the Ring-Ouzel ; while in addition to our native-bred birds, some of 

 which are, perhaps, partially migratory, large flocks visit us in 

 autumn and winter. 



In the Faeroes the Blackbird has occurred in spring ; it un- 

 doubtedly straggled to Iceland in the winter of 1877, and once to the 

 island of Jan Mayen. About 67° N. lat. in Norway appears to be its 

 highest breeding-range ; south of which it is found nesting down to the 

 Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, both sides of the Mediterranean, Asia 

 Minor, and even in the sultry depths of the Chor in Palestine. In 

 Russia it does not appear to range furtlier north or east than the 

 valley of the Volga ; being represented in Turkestan, Afghanistan, 

 and Cashmere by a larger resident species or form, which Mr. 



