By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 295 



journies, they were unable to prolong their travels, and deprived of 

 food by a sudden fall of snow, they perished by thousands from 

 starvation : Gilbert White speaks of their delaying their departure 

 northwards till June, after the dreadful winter of 1739-40, and the 

 cold N.E. winds which continued to blow through April and May; 

 and it is very remarkable how extremely susceptible of intense cold 

 these natives of the most northern countries are, being the first to 

 perish in severe weather. 



"Blackbird" (Tardus merula). "The ouzel cock, so black of hue 

 with orange tawney bill," as that great observer of nature, Shak- 

 speare, has described it, is so well-known that I need say very little 

 about it, the gardeners know to their cost its penchant for fruit in 

 the summer, and no devices of his will avail to scare it from the 

 gooseberry and raspberry bushes, and the strawberry beds, as long 

 as any fruit remains; but it changes its residence with the season : 

 as soon as wet weather sets in, the blackbirds may be found in the 

 turnip fields, where they find slugs and snails in abundance; and 

 in hard weather the hedgerows and thick bushes are its resort : it 

 is of a shy and restless disposition, and solitary withal, never seen 

 to congregate with many of its species, and hurries ofi" with a loud 

 scream of alarm, and buries itself in the nearest bush, the instant 

 it is discovered: it has a fine full rich voice, with which it often 

 favours us, and it is a matter of great dispute among connoisseurs 

 whether the blackbird or thrush has the finest song, though I think 

 most votes would be in favour of the latter, but yet the former has 

 manj' stout partizans, and not without reason, for its notes are very 

 melodious: it is also one of the earliest songsters we have. Black- 

 birds appear to be especially liable to exhibit variations in plumage, 

 specimens continually occurring in pied and mottled garb, some- 

 times in pure white, though the name of the bird causes such a 

 statement to sound contradictory. A.nd here perhaps I may be 

 allowed to make one or two observations on these albino varieties 

 in birds, having examined the subject with great attention, and 

 stated the result in a paper published by tlie Zoologist in 1853. I 

 will not inflict on the readers of this Magazine the arguments by 

 which I arrived at my conclusions, as they would be somewhat out 



