BLACKBIRD. 39 



Dublin this fine bird may be easily seen and observed 

 in the winter months. Wilder and shyer than the Red- 

 wing, it does not actually enter the suburbs ; but it 

 abounds in the country near Finglas, Mulhuddart, 

 Tallaght, and indeed everywhere that food can be 

 procured. 



Fieldfares have much the same tastes as the other 

 Thrushes. In hawthorn berries they delight. In very 

 severe winters, however, they sometimes attack the 

 turnip fields, where they occasionally do some damage. 

 To me the Fieldfare seems one of the finest of our 

 familiar birds, standing erect with a keen, watchful 

 glance, and ready, on the slightest alarm, to fly away 

 to some secure resting-place. 



BLACKBIRD. 



Turdus Merula ; Merle noir ; Schwarz DrosseL 



Plumage, wholly black ; bill, bright orange. Female, 

 reddish-brown on breast; head, neck, and back, blackish- 

 brown. Length, ten inches. 



This well-known and favourite songster is common in 

 most parts of Ireland. He has been found occasionally 

 even in such lonely spots as Rathlin, the Copeland Isles, 

 and Ailsa Craig. His once common names of Ousel 

 and Merle seem now almost forgotten, and he is known 

 as the Blackbird in all parts of the United Kingdom. 

 Although members of the Thrush family, the Ousels 

 differ from the Thrushes proper in one striking respect, 

 viz.: the females are not of the same colour as the 

 males, and both are without any streaks on the throat. 



