THE BLACKBIRD, 53 



if grass lands adjoin them. Being by nature a shy and 

 retiring bird, these situations are preferred before any 

 other, simply because the evergreen's dark and gloomy 

 branches afford him nesting-sites, roosting-places, and, 

 above all, the seclusion which he loves. 



As you wander through the shrubberies, say when 

 the shadows of night are falling, you will often hear a 

 rustling noise under the spreading laurels, amongst the 

 withered leaves. It is the Blackbird, frightened at your 

 approach. If you alarm him still further, he dashes rapidly 

 out, and with loud and startling cries flies off to some 

 safer cover. As the darkness deepens you have good 

 opportunity of watching their actions when retiring to 

 rest. Conceal yourself under the friendly branches of a 

 yew tree, and wait patiently. You hear their loud 

 startling cries in all directions, and catch occasional 

 glimpses of their dark forms flitting hither and thither 

 in the gloom. Pink, pink, pink, tac, tac, tac, tac, is 

 heard on every side. Now one comes fluttering into the 

 bush under which you are concealed, and his notes 

 startle you by their nearness. A short distance away 

 another answers. Another and another, in different 

 directions, also swell the noisy clamour, and you hear on 

 every side their fluttering wings amongst the perennial 

 branches around you. Gradually the cries cease in 

 number as the birds settle down to rest ; a solitary cry 

 will break the stillness of the evening air, but remain un- 

 answered ; and the only sounds that break the oppressive 

 silence are the evening notes of the Robin, or mayhap the 

 peculiar call of the Goatsucker, winnowing his way 

 through the trackless air above. 



Morning and evening are the times the Blackbird 

 usually seeks his food. This is for the most part, in 

 summer at least, obtained on the grass land near his 



