THE BLACKBIRD. 235 



MERULA MERULA. 

 THE BLACKBIRD. 



(PLATE 8.) 



Turdus merula, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 227 (17GO); Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 295 (1766); et 

 auctorum plurimorum Latham, Scopoli, Gmelin, Bechstein, Naumann, Ttun- 

 mtncJf, Vieillot, Gray, Bonaparte, Newton, Sharjye, Dresser, fyc. 



Merula vulgaris, Gerini, Orn. Mdh. Dig. iii. p. 46, pi. ccxcix. (1767) ; Selby, Brit. 

 Orn. i. p. 167 (1833). 



Merula nigra, Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. $c. Brit. Mus. p. 20 (1816). 



Merula merula (Linn.}, Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 552. 



Sylvia merula (Linn.), Sari, Orn. Tosc. i. p. 205 (1827). 



Turdus menegazzianus, Perini, Uccdli Vtronesi, p. 56 (1858). 



Turdus dactylopterus, Bp. Me Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 255. no. 3714 (1869). 



The Blackbird is perhaps the most elegant in appearance of all our 

 British Thrushes, and the most graceful and sprightly in its motions. Its 

 highly developed vocal powers and its familiarity with man justly win for it 

 universal admiration ; and its neat plump form and rich song are associated 

 most closely with all rural scenes. 



Throughout Great Britain, wherever trees abound, the Blackbird is 

 very commonly met with, and occasionally frequents the wild mountain- 

 wastes, but only near the upland farms or in gardens or orchards on 

 the border-lands of the moor. On the comparatively desolate Hebrides 

 the Blackbird appears but irregularly ; on some of the islands it is a 

 somewhat rare resident, whilst on others it is a winter visitant alone. 

 In Skye it occurs in fair numbers, but is not nearly so common as the Song- 

 Thrush. In all the well-wooded parts of the island you may hear his 

 mellow song in those cheerful oases of sylvan beauty that do so much to 

 relieve the wildness of moorland wastes. On the isolated rock of Ailsa 

 Craig one or two pairs of Blackbirds live ; and the Bass Rock in the Forth 

 contains a pair, so strangely out of place, where not a single bush or tree 

 exists. As cultivation advances and the wastes are gradually reclaimed, 

 the Blackbird increases his range, encroaching upon that of the Ring- 

 Ouzel. In Britain cultivation and the Blackbird are almost inseparable ; 

 and as improvement extends the birds follow in its wake, spread them- 

 selves, and take possession of haunts once sacred to the birds of the wild 

 alone. It is only in recent times that the Blackbird has extended its 

 range to the remotest of the Hebrides ; for, according to Macgillivray, the 

 bird in his tinfe did not breed upon them ; now it is a resident bird even as 

 far north as Stornoway in Lewis, owing undoubtedly to the improvement 

 and cultivation of late years. In the Orkneys it breeds ; but the Shetland 



