BLACKBIRDS NOT ALL BLACK. 153 



amuse his mate, as many have supposed, for he often sings 

 in winter, when he is not yet mated ; nor does he sing to 

 beguile his solitude, for now he is not solitary; but he 

 sings because all his wants are satisfied, his whole frame 

 glowing with health, and because his Maker has gifted 

 him with the power of uttering sweet sounds. 



A celebrated chief of the North American Indians was 

 named Blackbird, and it is related of him that at one of 

 the annual distributions of presents by the British Govern- 

 ment, he began a speech at sunrise which lasted, without 

 intermission, till sunset : those who believe in transmi- 

 gration of souls, might well suppose that such a gift of 

 eloquence would best befit a songster whose strains are 

 heard from early morn till dewy eve. It was Pliny's 

 theory that this bird turned red in winter, and here we 



have an agreement of hue also with the copper-skinned 

 palaverer of the West. The old Roman naturalist, how- 

 ever, might have been mistaken in this, as he was in many 

 other of his statements : the female bird, it is true, has 

 plumage more approaching to a brown than the male 

 songster, but this can scarcely be called red. In the islands 

 of the Mediterranean, and in some parts of Italy, par- 

 ticularly about the Pyrenees, there is found a blue Black- 

 bird, the song of which is said to be nearly equal to that 

 of the Nightingale. Instances of wholly and partially white 

 let us avoid the misnomer and say Ouzels, are not 

 unfrequently met with, and Willoughby accounted for 

 such a phenomenon by supposing them natives of moun- 

 tainous districts, where the constant presence of snow had 

 effected the change of colour ; but this is not correct, as 

 albinos are sometimes found in nests with others of the 

 natural hue. A stuffed specimen of a cream-coloured bird 

 of this species is preserved in the British Museum ; and 

 in the Zoological Gardens, London, there was one some 

 years since which had the head only white, and this was 

 caught in Northamptonshire. 



Quite recently one of these birds, nearly as white as 

 snow, excepting the principal tail and wing feathers, was 

 captured near Thornhill, and was stuffed, and placed in the 

 museum of that town. 



