47 



BLACKBIRD. 



PLATE CIII. 



Ttirdus merula, PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



JleruJa vulgaris, SELBT. GOTJLD. 



THIS species pairs in February or March, but occasionally much earlier. 

 Thus in the 'Yorkshire Gazette' of the 8th. of January, 1853, it is 

 recorded that a nest with two eggs was found at Brompton, in this 

 county, on the 3rd. of that month, by D. Ferguson, Esq. of Kedcar. 



The nest is placed in a variety of situations, and is frequently found 

 in a heap of sticks, even though placed in an outhouse, or most 

 commonly in a bush; sometimes in a tree against a wall, or in a tree 

 or wall covered with ivy; an instance has been known of its being 

 placed on the stump of a tree, close to the ground, and Sir William 

 Jardine found one on the ground, at the foot of a tree; another was 

 also seen in a similar situation, at the foot of a hazel bush, in a wood, 

 by my friend the Rev. W. Waldo Cooper, of West Rasen, Lincolnshire: 

 in the same wood he saw another on the stump of a hazel which 

 had been cut down, and from which several stems had grown; it was 

 not raised an inch from the ground, but was quite surrounded by the 

 new branches. Another on the ground has been recorded in the 

 'Zoologist,' page 1023, by W. W. Spicer, Esq. Mr. John H. Blundell, 

 of Luton, Bedfordshire, has written me word of his having found the 

 nest in one instance on the ground, in the middle of a large plantation 

 of oaks. It is often put in a hedge, and is commonly built at a height 

 of three or four feet; also in a hole in a wall or rock. In some instances 

 it has been known, when placed in or against the branch of a tree, to 

 be in some degree fastened to it by a twining and lacing of the larger 

 of the materials of which it is composed, and in one case, the space 

 between the branch of a tree, on which one was placed, and a wall, 

 was filled up with straw and hay. It is made of roots, small twigs, 

 and stalks of grass, with perhaps some lichens or fern, and is covered 



