BLACKBIR D 



Tu rdus m e rula 



ROM the richness of its song and its love for the gardens, 

 orchards, and shrubberies around our dwellings, the 

 Blackbird is the best- known of our British Thrushes. 

 It is abundantly distributed throughout Great Britain where- 

 ever trees abound. It is also a resident in many of the 

 outlying islands, and breeds on the Orkneys, Shetlands, 

 and Outer Hebrides, though it is only an irregular visitor to some of the 

 more desolate islands. The Blackbird breeds on the Bass Rock and on 

 Ailsa Craig, both localities being apparently quite unsuited to the habits 

 of the bird. 



The Blackbird is a shy, retiring bird, and its haunts are among the woods, 

 plantations, and thickets, where there is plenty of cover to afford it seclusion. 

 Its favourite haunts are among the shrubberies and thickets of evergreens 

 bordering some lawn or stretch of well-mown grass, where it can obtain its 

 food in the open and retire to the shelter of the laurels and rhododendrons 

 on the slightest alarm. Along the hedgerows between the fields the Black- 

 bird may be seen in large numbers, especially in summer, when the vegetation 

 is thick and close ; and the wooded banks of streams and swampy corners in the 

 woods have a great attraction for the bird, on account of the food which is to 

 be obtained in these places. The Blackbird is rather a difficult bird to flush : 

 it will hop along the ground and creep in and out of the brushwood rather 

 than take to its wings ; and if at last it be compelled to seek safety in flight, it 

 will drop down again into the nearest patch of cover. It rarely flies at any 

 height, and seems to prefer skulking along some hedge or line of trees rather 

 than expose itself to view in the open air. The Blackbird does not stray far 

 from its haunts, and usually frequents some particular locality throughout 

 the whole season, only making short excursions to its feeding -grounds, 

 which it visits morning and evening with great regularity. 

 VOL. in. 2 i 121 



