GOLDEN ORIOLE— BLACKBIRD 113 



comes down into the underwood, and is only seen on the ground when engaged in 

 insect-hunting. The oriole is very quarrelsome with its fellows as well as with 

 other birds, and has often been found fighting them in and about cherry-trees; 

 cherries being its favourite, though by no means its only fruit. It also feeds 

 largely on insects, hunting some of them in hawk-fashion, and often hovering 

 before striking down on them. The nest is mostly placed on a forked horizontal 

 bough, under 50 feet from the ground, from which it hangs on long bark-fibres, 

 wound round the twigs and hardened by the saliva of the bird. The eggs are 

 laid in the latter half of May or beginning of June. The oriole courageously 

 defends its young against jays, magpies, and other robbers. The cock sings most 

 and loudest in sultry weather when a thunderstorm is imminent, and then generally 

 from dense foliage in which he hides himself. From time to time he utters a sort 

 of croak as an alarm-note, which is repeated several times ; his call-note during the 

 pairing-season being a rapid " Who are you ? " as if sounded on a flute. The oriole 

 is a bird-of -passage, which makes a particularly short stay ; generally arriving in 

 the beginning of May, seldom earlier, and leaving towards the end of July or 

 beginning of August. Stragglers may pass over Europe, however, during the 

 whole of August and even in September. The male birds traverse Africa, to 

 Damaraland, the Transvaal, Natal, and Madagascar ; but the females and young 

 do not travel so far. The oriole breeds in temperate and southern Europe, and 

 Asia as far as Turkestan ; rare in Scandinavia, Great Britain, and the south of 

 Sweden, it is often met with in France, Italy, and Austria, though in Germany 

 it is not common. 



A much more familiar bird than the oriole is that well-known 

 Blackbird. 



songster the blackbird (Turdus merula), which has to a great extent 



left the forests and invaded the gardens, where it sings its song in the upper 

 branches of the trees, and even from the house-tops, as is frequently the case in 

 many parts of the Continent. When blackbirds dwell in the woods, they gener- 

 ally keep to dense bushes near water ; but in parks and gardens and along the 

 country roads, the nest may be found almost anywhere, no matter how exposed 

 may be the position. And yet the blackbird is by nature cautious and rarely 

 ventures to fly far away from cover. Its flight is low and straight, but some- 

 what fitful, and invariably ends with a raising of the tail on alighting. The tail 

 is also raised and spread when anything suspicious is noticed, and at any alarm 

 there is a dash for the nearest bushes, accompanied by a peculiarly noisy 

 chatter which acts as a warning to the whole neighbourhood. The blackbird not 

 only hops but walks, particularly when hunting for worms in wet weather. 

 Besides worms, its food consists of slugs and snails, insects in all stages, and 

 fruits of most kinds, though the damage it does in orchards is more than compen- 

 sated for by the enormous number of garden-pests it removes. The blackbird ranges 

 from the Outer Hebrides to the Volga, and from the south coast of the Medi- 

 terranean to the Arctic Circle in Norway, but it does not visit northern Russia. 

 During the summer months in northern countries, it lives in the mountains, but 

 in autumn comes down to the plains in large numbers. In Great Britain and 

 central Europe many remain throughout the winter, but young birds and females 

 vol. 1. — 8 



