BLACKBIRDS, NIGHTINGALES, ETC. 307 



ing, and not yet got to the one of thatching or lining. 

 Numberless birds, including other members of this 

 family, line their nests with grass or other soft 

 materials, whereas plastering is a comparatively rare 

 habit. It is legitimate to assume that that which is 

 common has preceded that which is rare. I would 

 here point out that whilst, in works of ornithology, 

 reference is always made to the strange habit which 

 the thrush has of daubing its nest, nothing, as a rule, is 

 said in regard to the similar habit of the blackbird, or, 

 if anything is, we are told merely that mud is used to 

 bind the materials together. The facts, however, are 

 as I state, and, did the blackbird not line its nest with 

 grass after it had so carefully plastered it with mud 

 brought from the waterside, it would be as noted in 

 this respect as is the thrush, its near relative. 



I have never heard the male blackbird sing whilst 

 thus attending the female as she built her nest, not 

 even when he waited for her in a tree, during the 

 actual time of its fashioning, though here was a fine 

 poetical opportunity for him. Song, it seemed, had 

 ended when once his bride had been won, and his 

 rivals vanquished by it. It was the same, to a con- 

 siderable extent, with a pair of nightingales that I 

 watched under similar circumstances. I did, indeed, 

 sometimes hear the song when the bird singing was 

 invisible, and, therefore, I cannot say that it was 

 not this particular one, which, for other reasons I am 

 inclined to think that it was. But during far the 

 greater part of the time, and always when I could see 

 him, he was as silent as his mate. It was in the early 

 morning and not the night-time, but nightingales sing 

 at all hours, both of the day and night The early 



