145 



BLACKBIRD. 



CHAPTER XI. 



THRUSHES CONTINUED BLACKBIRD, RING OUZEL, 



FIELDFARE, AND REDWING. 



E BLACKBIRD (Turdus Merula), whose glossy black 

 _|_ plumes and golden bill must be sufficiently familiar 

 to our readers, is found in all the wooded and cultivated 

 tracts of England, Scotland, and Ireland ; it is the Merle, 

 as old writers termed it, or the Garden Ouzel as we some- 

 times call it, and especially in the neighbourhood of 

 towns, amid gardens and orchards, tall hedgerows and 

 leafy copses, may its loud, clear, mellow song be heard 

 from morning till night, and from the beginning of spring 

 till the middle of July, and sometimes quite late into the 

 autumn. 



There so loud the Blackbird sings 

 That far and near the valley rings. 



Mudie says 



The Blackbird nestles quite close to the house, on ivied walls, in 

 old trees, and thick bushes, and at a moderate height from the 

 ground. The nest is made of moss and sticks, plastered inside 

 with mud, and lined with soft and dry matters. The brood is from 

 three to six, but rarely the latter number; and the eggs are of a 



