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dible ; the irides chestnut-brown, and the legs dark-brown 

 The following is Selby's description of the plumage : ' Uppe 

 parts of the body black, the feathers being margined with 

 blackish-gray. On the upper .part of the breast is a large 

 crescent-shaped gorget of pure white ; the rest of the unde: 

 parts black, margined with gray. Greater wing-covert 

 deeply marginated with ash-gray. Tail black. 



The plumage of the female bird is more clouded with 

 gray, and the pectoral gorget is much smaller, and cloudet 

 ith reddish-brown and gray. In the young females this 

 gorget is not visible ; and in the young males it is of a red- 

 dish-white. 



1 Varieties are sometimes found similar to those of the 

 blackbird. 



Bechstein after remarking on the striking resemblance 

 m the gait, in the motion of the wings and tail, and in the 

 call of the ring-blackbird, with those habits as manifested 

 in the common blackbird, thus speaks of its song : ' Its 

 voice, though hoarser and deeper, is nevertheless more har- 

 monious and agreeable. It is so weak, that a redbreast may 

 overpower it. It continues singing at all times, except when 

 moulting. It will live in confinement from six to ten 

 years.' 



There are other European species of the tribe, such as 

 Turdus saxatilis, the rock thrush, and Turdus cyaneus, the 

 blue thrush, but they are not recorded as having been ob- 

 served to frequent the British islands. Cuvier observes 

 that the foreign species which approach the European 

 blackbirds are Turdus Manillensis, Turdus Eremita, Tur- 

 dus varius, and Myiothera Andromeda. 



The American blackbirds, so destructive of the young 

 maize-crop, are of a different race. [See QUISCALUS.] 



BLACK BONNET (zoology), one of the names of the 

 reed bunting. [See BUNTING.] 



BLACKBURN, a market-town and township, and, under 

 the Reform Act, a borough, in the hundred, deanery, and 

 parish of Blackburn. It is 209 miles N.W. by N. of Lon- 

 don, 23 miles N.N.W. of Manchester, 12 miles N.W. by 

 N. ofBolton, 15 miles N.N.W. of Bury, 10 miles N.E. of 

 Chorley, and 8 miles W.N.W. of Haslingden. 



The parish of Blackburn is very large, extending nearly 

 fourteen miles in length, and ten in breadth. It contains 

 fifteen townships and eight chapelries, viz., Blackburn, 

 Cla> ton-le-dale, Cuerdale, Lower Darwen, Dinkley, Eccles- 

 liill. Little Harwood, Livesley, Mellor, Osbaldeston, Pleas- 

 ington, Ramsgrave, Rishton, Wilpshire, and Wilton, town- 

 ships; along with Balderston, Billington, Over Darwen, 

 Great Harwood, Salisbury, Samlesbury, Tockholes, and 

 Wallon-le-dale, Chapelries. This district is only a small 

 part of the hundred of Blackburn, whose boundaries are 

 marked by the hundred of Amounderness on the north- 

 east, by the Darwent and the hundred of Leyland on the 

 west, and by the hundred of Salford on the south. It 

 comprises four whole parishes, Blackburn, Chipping, Rib- 

 chester, and Whalley, and parts of Bury and Metton, alto- 

 gether containing eighty townships. This hundred contri- 

 butes 302 men to the county militia ; and the inhabitants 

 pay nine parts in every hundred to the county rate. 



All this division of the county of Lancaster, originally a 

 wild and barren tract of country, was bestowed by William 

 the Conqueror on Ilbert de Lacy, whose descendants and 

 followers obtained portions of it, and derived from them their 

 titles. Some of the names of these antient gentry are pre- 

 served in a curious book, a copy of which is in the college 

 library at Manchester, entitled ' The Visitation of Lanca- 

 shire, made anno 1567, by William Smith Rouge Dragon.' 

 Among others are Houghton, of Houghton Tower ; Osbal- 

 deston, of Osbaldeston; MaweH, of Great Merly; andTalbot, 

 of Salbery. The manor of Blackburn passed from the 

 De Lacies through several successive proprietors, till it be- 

 came the property of the first Lord Fauconberg by mar- 

 riage, whose descendant, Thomas Viscount Fauconberg, 

 it with all its rights in 1721 to William Suddell, 

 Henry Fielding, and William Baldwin, Esqrs., for 8650/. 



Dr. Whittaker, the historian of this district, states that 

 there was a castle at Blackburn in former times, occupied 

 by the Roman-British chiefs, and subsequently by the 

 Saxons, but no vestige of it remains, and the site itself is 

 only known by tradition. Camden, in his description of 

 this place, speaks of it as a ' noted market-town ;' while 

 another writer (Bloom), whose account refers to nearly a 

 century later, describes it has having ' a great weekly 

 market for cattle, corn, and provisions, on the Monday.' 



The town of Blackburn is situated near the centre of the 

 parish, on the bank of a brook, called, in Domesday Book, 

 ' Blacheburne,' but whih has now no particular name. 

 It is sheltered by a range of hills, which stretch from 

 the north-east to the north-west as far as Billinge HilL 

 Like most other towns of the same antiquity it is irregu- 

 larly built ; and until lately the streets were badly paved 

 and lighted. Under the operation of a police act, which 

 provides for the paving, lighting, watching, and cleansing 

 the streets, many improvements have taken place, and 

 others are in a state of progress. The introduction of gas 

 has been very beneficial to the town, and it is probable that 

 the inhabitants will soon discover the advantage of procuring 

 a better supply of water. 



The police regulations in this town are very defective. 

 Having no municipal government, the duties of preserving 

 the public peace devolve upon irresponsible persons : and a 

 sort of supreme authority is vested in two officers, annually 

 elected, called high-constables, one for the higher and the 

 other for the lower division of the hundred. The parochial 

 concerns are managed by a select vestry. 



The town of Blackburn depends entirely on trade for its 

 prosperity. As far back as 1650, one particular article of 

 the staple trade of the county was produced here with better 

 success than in any other place, which gave it the name of 

 ' Blackburn checks,' a species of cloth consisting of a linen 

 warp and cotton woof, one or both of which being dyed in 

 the thread, gave to the piece when woven a striped or 

 checked appearance. This fabric was afterwards superseded 

 by another, 'the Blackburn grays,' so called because the 

 materials of which it was composed were not dyed, but sent 

 to the printers unbleached, or as it is technically described, 

 in the gray state, in order to liave the patterns stamped 

 upon them. 



In the history of those improvements by which the ma- 

 nufacture of cotton has been brought to its present state of 

 perfection, it would appear that several of considerable im- 

 portance owe their discovery to the ingenuity and talent of 

 natives of this town. Among the rest, the invention of the 

 crank and comb, for taking the carding from the cylinder of 

 the carding-engine, undoubtedly belongs to James Har- 

 grave, a working carpenter. His patent was one of the 

 earliest that was taken out for the construction of the spin- 

 ning-jenny. 



But, for a long period, the chief article manufactured 

 inre was calicoes, for which the Blackburn weavers were 

 celebrated. This branch of trade is now transferred to 

 the power-looms, and the remnant of hand-loom weavers 

 are chiefly employed, at the present time, in making low- 

 >riced muslins. A considerable section of the working 

 community are engaged in the mills, which are increasing 

 to such an extent, that nearly 200,000 spindles are at work 

 n the town and its immediate vicinity, yielding an average 

 of between 60,000 and 70,000 Ibs. of yarn weekly. 



The annual amount of manufactured goods is estimated 

 at more than two millions and a half sterling ; but on com- 

 >aring this estimate with the production of neighbouring 

 owns, it must be observed that a much greater quantity of 

 'loth passes through the hands of the Blackburn weaver for 

 lie same amount of remuneration, than will go into the 

 ooms of those districts where a heavier and more costly 

 loth is produced. 



The commerce of the town has every advantage of water 

 arriage, by means of the Leeds and Liverpool canal, which 

 lasses the outskirts of the town, opening to the inhabitants 

 a direct communication between the eastern and western 

 eas. The continuity of the coal-beds on the southern side 

 )f the town atfords fuel at a very reasonable rate. On the 

 lorthern side of the district, lime of an excellent quality is 

 ound in great abundance. ' 



There are no public edifices in Blackburn, except those 

 which are used for religious worship. Tho parish church, 

 3t. Mary's, in the archdeaconry of Chester, is of very antient 

 oundation, having been built and endowed before the Nor- 

 man Conquest. This structure was taken down and rebuilt 

 n 1819, upon the site of the old grammar-school; and in 

 831, a few years after it was finished, the new edifice was 

 >artially destroyed by an accidental fire : it is again re- 

 tored, and is much admired for its architectural beauty, 

 The living is in the gift of the archbishop of Canterbury, 

 vho is rector. The vicar of the church holds the presenta- 

 ions to all the chapelries of the parish, of which there are 

 ight, but he derives no benefit from their revenues, Be- 



