98 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



33. BLACKBIRD. 



Turdus merula. 



The Blackbird is so well known throughout Eng- 

 land, and its habits so easy to observe, that any 

 detailed notes thereon would be superfluous. I will 

 therefore content myself with saying that with us it 

 is especially abundant, that its numbers are increased 

 every autumn by an immigration, and that more of 

 these birds remain through the winter in our district 

 than of any other species of the genus. I have not 

 observed in the Blackbird the habit so well known in 

 the case of the Song-Thrush, viz. that of selecting a 

 convenient spot to which to carry the larger snails for 

 the purpose of breaking them up. I have met with 

 the Blackbird in every European country which I have 

 visited, and was surprised to find it nesting in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of Algiers in April 1878. 

 In Yarrell's ' British Birds ' I read that the Blackbird's 

 *' strain is never better than during a warm April 

 shower ; " and I well recollect that it was a common 

 saying in our district, when I was a child, that the 

 Blackbird would only sing his best when he had had 

 a good shower to " wet his whistle." I know of 

 several occurrences of white and pied specimens of 

 the Blackbird in our county ; a fine old male with 

 pure white wings haunted the flower-garden at Lil- 

 ford for several years. I believe that the Blackbird, 

 as a rule, nests thrice in the year ; instances of its 

 doing so four times are on record. 



Between the end of January and the first week of 

 April 1884, a " golden-coloured " Blackbird was con- 

 stantly noticed by our gamekeepers and several other 

 persons haunting the fence of one of our plantations, 

 bv the roadside between Barnwell and Lilford cross- 



