796 



THRUSH. 



the arrangements of naturalists, which increase rather 

 than diminish as the country is more thickly peopled 

 and better cultivated. In no places are they more 

 abundant than in the market gardens, where vege- 

 tables and fruits are grown to supply the consump- 

 tion of populous towns and cities. In the rich 

 grounds on the Middlesex side of the Thames, from 

 Westminster upwards, as far as the market-gardens 

 are continued, blackbirds are very numerous. They 

 are at the same time highly useful in clearing the 

 ground of snails and slugs, which are among the 

 worst enemies of some parts of the growth and 

 produce, and also among the most difficult to be got 

 rid of by human means. In walking along the 

 green lanes among the gardens alluded to, the num- 

 bers of the blackbirds, i.and the activity of their 

 labours, are a very pleasing sight ; and one might 

 readily imagine (though it is of course a mere matter 

 of imagination) that the birds feel that they are as 

 useful as the human labourers who are at work in the 

 same grounds. They are familiarised to all the ordi- 

 nary sights and sounds, caring little for the scare- 

 crows which are set up for intimidating other birds ; 

 and although no bird is very fond of the report of a 

 musket, blackbirds appear to be less alarmed by it 

 than most others. 



The song of the blackbirds, which, although there 

 is not very much music in it, is soft and mellow, 

 begins early in the spring, not quite so earl)' as the 

 missel thrush, but not very long afterwards. They 

 breed once, twice, or three times in the season, ac- 

 cording to the nature of the situation. In cold parts 

 of the country, where the summer is short, they breed 

 only once, and their song does not begin till the 

 season is considerably advanced ; and when once it 

 ceases it is not again renewed the same year. Where 

 they breed twice or thrice in the year, the song is 

 heard, with little intermission, from first to last ; for 

 although the male does not sing after the young are 

 hatched, yet the hatches not being at exactly the 

 same time in all tho pairs, one or other is in song 

 from the time of the first impulse in the spring to the 

 development of the last brood in the autumn. 



The external part of the nest consists of moss and 

 lichen, worked up with mud, and the structure lined 

 with fine vegetable fibres and feathers. Both parent 

 birds labour at the construction of the nest, and with 

 so much assiduity that, though the fabric is rather an 

 elaborate one, it is finished in about a week. The 

 eggs vary from four to six, and are of a greenish 

 blue colour, with obscure though numerous markings 

 of rust-colour. The male takes a share in the incu- 

 bation, though not quite so large a share as some 

 other birds. The nests are usually in close conceal- 

 ment, and still further concealed by their substance 

 resembling that of the mossy trunks against which 

 they are placed ; they do not, however, avoid places 

 which are frequented by human beings, for a nest 

 may be often seen in a shrub close by a summer- 

 house in which there is company every day, and the 

 bird will sit with perfect unconcern, within a few feet 

 of those who are in the house, if they do not actually 

 meddle with her or her eggs. The more woodland 

 ones, in situations where there is no cover for them 

 in the gardens, are a little more timid, but their nests 

 are generally so placed that they are not very likely 

 to be seen ; and the birds repair to the nest and quit 

 it so warily that they do not betray the exact place 

 where it is situated ; in fact, it is always so placed 



that the bird can escape to a considerable distance, 

 under the cover of the sprays, before it makes its 

 appearance, and then, as it doubles after it is seen, 

 there is no retracing its passage to the nest. The 

 young blackbirds are hearty feeders, and thus the 

 parent birds have to capture a vast number of worms 

 and all sorts of larvae for their support the snails 

 and slugs being generally down at the time when the 

 birds have their broods, more especially their first 

 one for the season. In winter the blackbirds are 

 very partial to the cover of evergreen shrubs, partly, 

 no doubt, because those afford more shelter and con- 

 cealment than the leafless sprays of deciduous trees, 

 and bushes, and partly also because food for them is 

 found in the shelter of these plants, when there is 

 none where the earth is freely exposed to the atmo- 

 sphere. 



FIELDFARE (T. pilaris}. This is a slender-bodied 

 and well-winged bird, and as such of a much more 

 migrant and discursive character than any of the 

 species hitherto noticed. It measures about ten 

 inches in length and sixteen in the stretch of the 

 wings, and weighs about four ounces ; the upper 

 plumage is brown red, the under clouded with dusky, 

 with the tail feathers black, except the tips of the 

 outer ones, which are white, and the top of the head 

 and the rump are of a hoary or whitish colour. The 

 plumage is, however, subject to considerable varieties. 



It appears as a regular winter visitant in Britain, 

 and in all the middle and south of Europe, and in 

 Egypt ; and it abounds in Asia, where also it is a 

 seasonal migrant, coming southward in the autumn 

 and retiring northward in the spring. In Britain it 

 generally appears about the end of September, but 

 sooner or later according to the character of the sea- 

 son. It is not the season with us, however, but 

 the season in those places from which they come, 

 that regulates the time of their appearance and the 

 numbers in which they appear ; and thus they often 

 appear early and in abundance when the weather is 

 serene and warm, and do not come when it is turbu- 

 lent and broken. Their coming in numbers is, how- 

 ever, always a sign that the winter has set in, early 

 and with severity, in the north ; ^and when that is the 

 case we generally find that our turn of it is sure to 

 come. Thus the early appearance of fieldfares, and 

 indeed of all birds which summer in the north, may 

 be taken as a certain omen of a severe winter. They 

 always come in little flocks, which maybe seen on 

 the wing beating about for those grounds which are 

 most suitable for them. They arrive much more 

 early in the northern parts of the country than in the 

 southern, and they seldom reach the south of Europe 

 before the end of autumn. In very severe winter 

 storms they are often driven upon our shores in great 

 numbers, and in a very exhausted state. This hap- 

 pens when the storm comes from the north-east, and 

 we may suppose that they are beaten to leeward 

 on their flight to a more southerly part of the con- 

 tinent. In most parts of Britain they are only 

 birds of passage, at least if the winter is severe, and 

 they are more moveable with the storm than almost any 

 other birds ; they are also social birds in the winter, 

 for though they range the moors and other pastures 

 singly, they collect in flocks at night, in case of 

 alarm, or of severe weather forcing them to change 

 their ground. They roost for the night on the ground 

 squatting in the herbage, but they assemble on trees ; 

 and if there are trees convenient in the neighbour- 



