84 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



in England, it must be considered an exception 

 and not the rule. I am strengthened in this 

 belief by Mr. Newman, who says : * " I am willing 

 to admit that negative evidence cannot be fairly 

 weighed against positive evidence like that of Mr. 

 Matthews ; but it is a little remarkable that Mr. 

 Doubleday, Mr. Yarrell, Mr. Bond, Col. Newman, 

 Mr. Fox, Mr. Bechstein (to say nothing of my- 

 self), all of whom have made this a special object 

 of inquiry, should never have detected a Kedwing 

 in the act of singing ; it certainly tends to show that 

 the singing is very exceptional, and not the normal 

 habit of the bird, as in the case of the Sons: Thrush." 



A few instances are on record of a pair of Eed- 

 wings having remained in this country throughout 

 the summer, and nested here. In ' Charlesworth's 

 Magazine of Natural History,' Mr. Blyth notices 

 two or three such instances, and mentions the state- 

 ment of a dealer that a nest was taken at Barnet. 



Blackbird, Turdus meriila. A common resident, 

 preferring tall hedgerows and the sides of copses. 

 Like its congener, the Song Thrush, it loves to feed 

 out in the clover and turnip -fields in autumn. On 

 the 4th September, 1863, I counted seventeen 

 Blackbirds in an acre of turnips. An unusual 

 site for a Blackbird's nest is mentioned in ' The 

 Zoologist.' A correspondent, writing from Willesden 



^ ' Zoologist,' p. 9040. 



