236 BRITISH BIRDS. 
Isles are only visited in winter, most probably by storm-driven birds from 
Norway, carried out of the general line of migration. It has been 
occasionally found on the Faroe Islands; and in Iceland its occurrence 
rests on two somewhat doubtful instances, one in 1823, the other in March 
1860. It isa resident in the Azores. The Blackbird is a more or less 
constant resident in every country in Europe and North Africa; but its 
range does not extend very far north. In Norway, in consequence of the 
milder climate caused by the Gulf-stream, it breeds up to the Arctic circle ; 
but in Russia it does not appear to range further north or further east 
than the valley of the Volga. In Asia it is found in Asia Minor, Palestine, 
Persia, Turkestan, Afghanistan, and Cashmere. In the three last- 
mentioned countries it attains a somewhat larger size, which has given 
rise to the name of Merula maxima having been applied to the Eastern 
form. In this race (which, according to the excellent American system 
of nomenclature which ten years hence will also be used in this country, 
ought to be called Merula merula, var. maxima) the length of wing varies 
from 6:0 to 5:2 inch, whilst European birds only measure from 5:1 to 
4°6inch. The Blackbird is a partial migrant. In the extreme north of 
its range it is very rare in winter, whilst im the southern portion it is 
especially abundant at that season of the year. 
The Blackbird is shy and wary ; and his haunts are chosen in situations 
well adapted to afford him concealment and seclusion. He inhabits the 
woodlands, plantations, dense hedgerows, gardens, and orchards ; but per- 
haps the places he favours most are the shrubberies and thickets of ever- 
greens. Here, where the laurels, the yews, and the hollies spread their 
glossy branches, and the ivy festoons almost every forest-tree, the Black- 
bird is found in greatest abundance, more especially so should lawns 
or pasture-fields adjoin them. The Blackbird also loves the fences in 
the fields in summer, where the vegetation is thick and close, and more 
particularly so if small streams of water wander beside them. The briars 
and the brambles growing most luxuriantly over the hazel-bushes, with 
here and there a guelder rose or blackthorn bush, afford a friendly shelter ; 
and the banks clothed densely with herbage, wild hyacinths, primroses, 
anemones, and fern-tufts afford a fitting site for his nest. But in winter, 
when these situations lose their verdure, the Blackbird quits them for the 
seclusion and warmth of the evergreens in the shrubberies and gardens. 
In spare numbers the Blackbird also frequents the upland districts, on 
those broken tracts of country which occur between the cultivated ground 
and the moors. Here he frequents the dense thickets of thorn and bramble 
by the side of the little streams, or, further in the open, the tall holly 
bushes and gorse clumps occasionally intermingled with a birch or moun- 
tain-ash. Wherever the upland farmhouses nestle amongst clumps of trees 
and are surrounded with a partially neglected garden or orchard, the Black- 
