198 THE BLACKBIRD 



Tn confinement this bird is kept in a cage of the same size as the 

 blackbird's. 



Food. — When %vild this bird appears to subsist entirely on insects. 



In confinement it would doubtless thrive very well on the food which 

 is given to the blackbird, which will be mentioned hereafter. It is better, 

 however, to study it a little, and find out what suits it best. 



Breeding It builds among rocks ; but its nest has not yet been 



discovered in Europe, though some circumstances indicate that it pro- 

 pagates there. In 1784, in the duchy of Altenburg, three young ones 

 ■were killed, but just out of the nest, and which consequently could not 

 have come from far. This fact should excite the attention and vigilance of 

 zealous observers. 



Modes of Taking. — Skilful bird-catchers will soon discover the means 

 of catching the bird : snares and limed twigs, with grasshoppers and other 

 living and moving insects for bait, will probably accomplish this end. It 

 would be hazardous to shoot the birds in the hope of wounding them but 

 slightly, as is sometimes done with other birds, which soon recover, and 

 remain tame, if, during their recovery, they have been well treated. 



Observations A sportsman discovered, in 1794, in the environs of 



Meiningen, in Suabia, a flight of eight or ten rose ouzels, moving leisurely 

 from south-west to north-east, and passing from one cherry-tree to another. 

 He fired on these birds, only one fell, which was fortunately very slightly 

 wounded, so that it soon quite recovered. Being immediately carried to 

 M. Von Wachter, the rector of Frickenhausen, this clergyman took the 

 greatest care of it ; he gave it a spacious cage, and found that barley-meal 

 moistened uith milk was as wholesome as agreeable to it. His kindness 

 tamed it in a short time so far that it would come and take from his hand 

 the insects which he offered to it. It soon sang also, but its warblihg 

 consisted at first of but a few harsh sounds, pretty well connected however, 

 and this became at length more clear and smooth. Connoisseurs in the 

 songs of birds discover in this song a mixture of many others ; one of 

 these connoisseurs, who had not discovered the bird, but heard its voice, 

 thought he was listening to a concert of two starlings, two goldfinches, and 

 perhaps a siskin; and Avhen he saw that it was a single bird, he could not 

 conceive how all this music proceeded from the same throat. This bird 

 was still alive in 1802, and the delight of its possessor 



THE BLACKBIRD. 



Turdus merula, Linn^ds ; Le Merle, Buffon ; Die Schwarzdrossel, Bechstein. 



This species, the most docile of its genus, is nine inches and 

 a half long, four of which belong to the tail. The beak is an 

 inch long, and orange yellow ; the iris is dark brown ; the 

 shanks are an inch high, and black. The whole plumage is of 

 a pure velvety black ; the eyelids alone are orange. 



