138 BIEDS 



wing is so akin to the song-thrush in emotional suscepti- 

 bility (allied in both species to a delicacy of constitution) 

 that it might well be a winter songster too. The song has 

 been described as " a musical babble very gently warbled," 

 but the bird rarely sings except just before migration, 

 and then, it is said, less charmingly than in Norway. 

 That is true of many species, which take a little time to 

 become note-perfect. Song is not an instinctive faculty. 



A HYBEID? 



Here is another instance of a pied blackbird or two ! 

 Three years ago a blackbird frequented a small plantation 

 near this house. This bird had three white feathers in 

 its wings " two and one," as heraldry would put it. I 

 often saw it quite close ; it had a particularly flute-like 

 note ; a cock bird. The following year while walking in a 

 lane about a quarter of a mile from the plantation I came 

 upon another blackbird which also had some white feathers 

 and a narrow white rim round the neck. In 1919 I was 

 riding down the same lane and at almost the same spot 

 a blackbird flew across the road just in front of my horse. 

 I did not notice any white in its wings, but its head and 

 neck were quite white except just under the beak. It 

 lit on a railing about fifteen yards away, so I had a capital 

 view of it. It was very handsome, with a gorgeous orange 

 bill. I frequently saw it after that, but it has now dis- 

 appeared. I am not enough of an ornithologist to know 

 if the three birds could be one bird. Or perhaps the 

 second and third were lineal descendants of the first 

 " pied piper." I may add that recently in the same 

 plantation I saw a white weasel, or small stoat. Except 

 for a patch of russet on the head and ears, it was pure 

 white with a beautiful black tip to its tail, like an ermine : 

 exceedingly pretty and showed up well against the dark 

 moss of the pathway as it darted across probably on the 



