24 BIRDS OF THE HTJMBER DISTRICT. 



plantation with the Blackbirds, perching on the 

 young larch trees, about halfway up, several sitting 

 together on the same branch. 



37. TURDUS MERULA, Linnaeus. Blackbird. 



Generally distributed. Is much more numerous 

 in this parish during the autumn and winter than in 

 the summer. In the autumn large numbers migrate 

 from the north of Europe, arriving in the east-coast 

 districts in October, in company with the Fieldfare, 

 and occasionally in separate flocks*. At this season 

 I have sometimes found our marsh hedgerows near 

 the coast literally swarming with Blackbirds, where 

 the day previously scarcely one could have been 

 found. Early in the morning of the 29th of October, 

 1870, after a wild, wet night, I counted fifteen (thir- 

 teen of them cocks) fly from a small weather-beaten 

 bush on the coast, where at any other time we 

 might have looked in vain for one. There were also 

 large flocks of Fieldfares on the adjoining stubbles, 

 evidently quite recent arrivals. 



I have known a pair of these birds in my garden 

 rear three broods in a season, and one case where 

 the eggs were deposited and a second brood reared 

 in the old nest. Mr. Boyes has recorded a similar 



* The Blackbirds, I am told, arrive at Spurn with the Field- 

 fares, and along with these birds are often found dashed to 

 death below the lanterns of the lighthouse ; the same fatality 

 attending both the Redwings and Thrushes. 



