BLACKBIRD. 213 



same notes are too frequently repeated. This bird com- 

 mences his song early in the spring ; and it has been 

 observed that he occasionally sings his best strain during 

 the continuance of a warm April shower. He continues 

 singing at intervals throughout the summer, and till the 

 regular moulting of the season commences. 



Like some other birds gifted with great powers of voice, 

 the Blackbird is an imitator of the sounds made by others. 

 He has been heard to imitate closely part of the song of the 

 Nightingale ; three or four instances are recorded of his 

 having been known to crow exactly like the Common Cock, 

 apparently enjoying the sound of the responses made by the 

 fowls of the neighbouring farm-yard ; and Mr. Neville 

 Wood, in his British Song Birds, has mentioned an 

 instance in which he heard a Blackbird cackle as a hen does 

 after laying. 



The Blackbird pairs and breeds very early in the spring, 

 generally choosing the centre of some thick bush in which 

 to fix and conceal the nest. The outside is formed of coarse 

 roots and strong bents of grass, plastered over or intermixed 

 with dirt on the inner surface, forming a stiff wall : it is 

 then lined with finer bents. The eggs are four or five in 

 number, sometimes, but rarely, six, of a light blue colour, 

 speckled and spotted with pale reddish brown : the eggs of 

 the Blackbird are occasionally found of a uniform blue, 

 without any spots whatever ; the length of the egg one 

 inch two lines, the breadth ten lines. The first brood 

 of young are hatched by the end of March, or early in 

 April. 



The Blackbird is very generally distributed. It is found 

 over the whole of the counties of the South of England 

 from Sussex to Cornwall, it is common in Wales; and, 

 according to Mr. Thompson of Belfast, it is very common 



