236 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Isles are only visited in winter, most probably by storm-driven birds from 

 Norway, carried out of the general line of migration. It bas been 

 occasionally found on the Faroe Islands ; and in Iceland its occurrence 

 rests on two somewhat doubtful instances, one in 18.23, the other in March 

 1860. It is a resident in the Azores. The Blackbird is a more or less 

 constant resident in every country in Europe and North Africa ; but its 

 range does not extend very far north. In Norway, in consequence of the 

 milder climate caused by the Gulf-stream, it breeds up to the Arctic circle ; 

 but in Russia it does not appear to range further north or further east 

 than the valley of the Volga. In Asia it is found in Asia Minor, Palestine, 

 Persia, Turkestan, Afghanistan, and Cashmere. In the three last- 

 mentioned countries it attains a somewhat larger size, which has given 

 rise to the name of Merula maxima having been applied to the Eastern 

 form. In this race (which, according to the excellent American system 

 of nomenclature which ten years hence will also be used in this country, 

 ought to be called Merula merula, var. maxima) the length of wing varies 

 from 6'0 to 5'2 inch, whilst European birds only measure from 5'1 to 

 4'6 inch. The Blackbird is a partial migrant. In the extreme north of 

 its range it is very rare in winter, whilst in the southern portion it is 

 especially abundant at that season of the year. 



The Blackbird is shy and wary ; and his haunts are chosen in situations 

 well adapted to afford him concealment and seclusion. He inhabits the 

 woodlands, plantations, dense hedgerows, gardens, and orchards ; but per- 

 haps the places he favours most are the shrubberies and thickets of ever- 

 greens. Here, where the laurels, the yews, and the hollies spread their 

 glossy branches, and the ivy festoons almost every forest-tree, the Black- 

 bird is found in greatest abundance, more especially so should lawns 

 or pasture-fields adjoin them. The Blackbird also loves the fences in 

 the fields in summer, where the vegetation is thick and close, and more 

 particularly so if small streams of water wander beside them. The briars 

 and the brambles growing most luxuriantly over the hazel-bushes, with 

 here and there a guelder rose or blackthorn bush, afford a friendly shelter ; 

 and the banks clothed densely with herbage, wild hyacinths, primroses, 

 anemones, and fern-tufts afford a fitting site for his nest. But in winter, 

 when these situations lose their verdure, the Blackbird quits them for the 

 seclusion and warmth of the evergreens in the shrubberies and gardens. 

 In spare numbers the Blackbird also frequents the upland districts, on 

 those broken tracts of country which occur between the cultivated ground 

 and the moors. Here he frequents the dense thickets of thorn and bramble 

 by the side of the little streams, or, further in the open, the tall holly 

 bushes and gorse clumps occasionally intermingled with a birch or moun- 

 tain-ash. Wherever the upland farmhouses nestle amongst clumps of trees 

 and are surrounded with a partially neglected garden or orchard, the Black- 



