5 o BLACKBIRD 



small twigs, and stalks of grass, with perhaps some lichens 

 or fern, and is covered on the inside with mud, and lined 

 with finer parts of the other materials and grass ; it is 

 sometimes most admirably hidden, so as almost to baffle 

 detection. It is at times placed on the top of a fence or 

 the summit of a wall. The same situation is occasionally 

 resorted to from year to year. The female sits for thirteen 

 days. 



The eggs are commonly five in number, sometimes 

 four, and sometimes, though but rarely, six ; they are of a 

 dull light greenish blue, mottled and spotted with pale 

 reddish brown, the markings being closer at the larger end, 

 where they sometimes form an obscure ring. They vary 

 very much in size as well as in shape and colour. Mr. 

 Hewitson, in his " Coloured Illustrations of the Eggs of 

 British Birds," figures one elegantly covered over at the 

 larger end with minute reddish-brown specks, and likewise, 

 but less thickly, over the remainder the green showing 

 through ; and a second curiously marbled with irregular 

 dashes and specks of reddish brown over the green colour. 

 Another variety is similar to the last, except that the ground 

 colour is lighter, and the spots smaller. Another, in his 

 possession, clear spotless light blue, with the whole of the 

 larger end suffused with reddish brown. Mr. J. B. Ellman, 

 of Battel, relates in the Zoologist, page 2180, that he had 

 an egg in which the spots were at the smaller end. Some 

 of the eggs are much larger than others, and they also 

 vary much in colour and markings, as well as in shape, some 

 being much more round, and others much more oval, than 

 others : in some instances, the smaller end is rounded and 

 obtuse. Two and sometimes three broods are reared in 

 the season. 



