TITMICE AND THRUSHES. 81 
To this list of victims must be added the slug, 
which the bird sometimes devours in considerable 
numbers. 
The blackbird is somewhat fanciful in its diet, 
even when fruit is in question, and will attack one 
tree day after day, while another, to all appearance 
The Blackbird. 
even more enticing, is left perfectly untouched. Last 
year (1885) three cherry-trees in the garden were 
entirely stripped of their fruit by blackbirds, which 
picked all the flesh from the stones, and left the 
latter still adhering to the stems. But the trees of a 
neighbour, which were separated only by means of a 
wall, and which, moreover, bore fruit of a very much 
finer character, were entirely passed by. 
G2 
