BIRDS THRUSHES 23 



when the ground is hard, they do much 

 damage to the apple crop. Not content with 

 making short work with the " windfalls," they 

 peck holes in some of the best fruit on the 

 trees. I noticed this especially in 1899, an d 

 again in 1901 and 1911. In 1899 I saw f ur 

 cock blackbirds amicably devouring a fallen 

 apple together. 



Though a blackbird's song is beautifully 

 mellow, it is generally disconnected and 

 fragmentary, but I remember hearing one 

 once that seemed continuous, or at least much 

 more so than usual. 



One day at the end of March (in 1895) I 

 saw perched on a twig of an oak tree and 

 sitting quite close up against the trunk, a cock 

 blackbird, which continually uttered a small, 

 thin sharp note, almost like the squeaking of 

 a slate pencil. He sat still in the same 

 position for a considerable time, only open- 

 ing his mouth at intervals of about a minute, 

 or half a minute, to make this doleful noise. 

 The same year, on June i5th, in exactly the 

 same place, a cock blackbird went through 

 exactly the same performance. 



Every winter blackbirds have been amongst 

 the most regular pensioners at the food-stand. 



Several times during May in 1898, and 

 again in 1899 and 1900 and since, I noticed 

 a meeting of three, always, I think, three, 

 cock blackbirds at one particular spot, 

 always the same, near a holly tree on the 



