THE BLACKBIRD. 239 
ground or crawl out completely. An animating and interesting sight, indeed, 
it isto watch him seek hismeal. As soonas he alights he pauses a moment, 
then hops quickly forward and begins to dig for a worm, or snatches a 
snail from the grass-stem. Then another pause with lead erect, then a 
few more rapid hops forward, and again he renews the digging motions, 
drawing the worms from their hiding places, and, if they be too large to 
swallow whole, breaking them in pieces. Now he is tugging away at some 
tenacious worm, now exploring the heaps of manure in search of insects, 
every now and then pausing in his labours to look warily around. In this 
manner the birds will advance a hundred yards or more from their cover ; 
but should any one of them utter its alarm-notes, the whole party 
seek shelter, leaving the pasture in a straggling train, the boldest birds 
sometimes tarrying until you approach them within gunshot. But all the 
Blackbird’s food is not obtained from the pastures. Lurking amongst the 
hedgerows are numerous snails inhabiting prettily-marked shells; these 
the Blackbird breaks by dashing them against a stone or even the hard 
ground. Insects and grubs are also eaten, and in autumn the berries of 
the mountain-ash, wild rose, and elder, and also wild fruits, as raspberry, 
blackberry, and sloe. The Blackbird is also, to some extent, a gramini- 
vorous bird, and will feed on grain and various seeds. The bird’s love for 
fruit also makes him but a poor favourite with the gardener, who is ever 
on the alert to kill him for the cherries, currants, gooseberries, and peas 
that he pilfers in the season. But the bird’s thefts in fruit-time are amply 
repaid by the amount of undoubted good he does at other times of the 
year in ridding the garden and the orchard of many of their unwelcome. 
pests. A little watching in the fruit-season is all that is necessary. His 
good deeds amply repay his little pilferings; and his sprightly form and 
tuneful song should be far more highly valued than a handful of fruit. 
In autumn the Blackbird is often found in the turnip-fields, seeking 
the snails and worms which abound so plentifully in the damp loose 
soil under the broad leaves. In such numbers do the birds congregate 
that it is no uncommon thing to flush a dozen of them on an acre of 
turnips. Here they are flushed with difficulty, always preferring to run 
under the leaves than to take wing, unless absolutely compelled to do so. 
In winter the Blackbird’s table is the hawthorn, whose berries form its 
favourite food. At this season of the year it also eats the berries of the 
misseltoe and the ivy; yet always, when the frost is absent, it frequents 
the grass-lands, manure-heaps, and little watercourses in search of the 
various insects on or near them. 
The song of the Blackbird is first heard in the latter part of February, 
and continues with undiminished power until the end of May, when his 
notes are on the wane throughout June; and in July his mellow pipe is 
hushed during the autumnal moult until the advent of the following spring. 
