168 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



two they will resume their occupation. But if you 

 should disturb the blackbird on the side of the bank 

 next you, where he knows you must have seen or heard 

 him, or if he is obliged to come out on your side of the 

 hedge, then he makes the meadow ring with his alarm- 

 note, and immediately away goes pigeon or wood- 

 pecker, thrushes fly farther down the hedge, and the 

 rabbits feeding in the grass lift up their heads and, 

 seeing you, rush to their burrows. In this way the 

 blackbird acts as a general sentinel. 



He has two variations of this cry. One he uses 

 when just about to change his feeding-ground and 

 visit another corner across the field ; it is as much 

 as to say, " Take notice, all you menials ; I, the king 

 of the hedge, am coming." The other is a warning, 

 and will very often set two or three other blackbirds 

 calling in the same way whose existence till then was 

 unsuspected. These calls are quite distinct from his 

 song. 



Sometimes, when sitting on a rail in the shade of a 

 great bush a rail placed to close a gap I have had 

 a blackbird come across the meadow and perch just 

 above my head. Till the moment of alighting he 

 was ignorant of my presence, and for a second the 

 extremity of his astonishment literally held him 

 speechless at his own temerity. The next what an 

 outcry and furious bustle of excitement to escape ! 

 So in the garden here he .makes a desperate rush, 

 seizes his prey, and off again twenty or thirty yards, 

 exhibiting an amusing mixture of courage and timid- 



