78 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



THE BLACKBIRD. 



TURDUS MERULA. 

 Lon-dubh. 



BLAIR, in his beautiful poem, "the Grave," after describing the 

 pleasures enjoyed by himself and a companion, when wandering 

 heedlessly in some thick wood away from the " vulgar eye," thus 

 introduces the Blackbird and his ally: 



" And sat us down 



Upon the sloping cowslip-covered bank 

 Where the pure limpid stream has slid along 

 In grateful eddies through the underwood, 

 Sweet murmuring; methought the shrill-tongued thrush 

 Mended his song of love; the sooty blackbird 

 Mellowed his pipe, and softened every note; 

 The eglantine smelled sweeter, and the rose 

 Assumed a dye more deep; whilst every flower 

 Vied with its fellow plant in luxury 

 Of dress." 



But in ushering this fine "negro vocalist" into these pages, I 

 shall not dwell upon his habits in cultivated haunts, these being 

 already familiar to all readers and observers. The life of the 

 merle in the Hebrides has never been associated with verdant 

 woods or beds of roses. There he has no flower-covered lawn or 

 tall poplar tree on which to begin and end the day; he lives but 

 on poor diet, picked from the spray-covered rocks, and sings him- 

 self to rest, it may be, on a turf-built wall, or mound of stones in 

 the midst of some desolate moor. 



The Blackbird is common at times only in the outer group of 

 islands. On Lewis, although a well-known resident, it is not so 

 numerous as the thrush, but the great improvements near Storno- 

 way will no doubt attract the species more in future, and it may 

 therefore be expected to increase. On Harris it is likewise resi- 

 dent, and also on North Uist, but in very limited numbers; while 

 on Benbecula it is wholly absent in summer, being only a winter 

 visitant. On lona and Mull it is also a winter bird only; but in 

 some of the other inner islands it is resident. I have found several 

 pairs of Blackbirds on Ailsa Craig; one of these had their nest in 

 a turret hole of the old castle ruins, nearly half way towards the 



