TILE BLACKBIRD. 33 



"Liat to the Merle's dulcet pipe ! melodious bird, 

 Who, hid behind the milk-white hawthorn spray, 

 Whose early flower.s anticipate the leaf, 

 Welcomes the time of buds, the infant years." 



Shakspere calls it — 



"The Woosel-cock, so black of hue, 

 With orange tawny bill" 



And it is still called the garden ouzel in some 

 counties. Woofel is another name by which the 

 old English poets wrote of it, and which is 

 apparently but a variation of Woosel. The 

 Gemians term the bird Schwardrossel. 



The Hesh of the black1)ird is in some parts of 

 the Continent considered a great delicacy during 

 summer, though at the season in which it feeds on 

 ivy berries it is somewhat bitter. In our country 

 it is little eaten, and few of us would wish to 

 share in the repast of which we read in tlip 

 nurser)% when 



"Four-and-twenty blackbirds were placed in a pie." 



It is April, and wood and mead are green with 

 the frequent showers, and soft pillowy clouds lie 

 on the surl\ice of the blue sky. There is an air 

 of freshness and youth in all nature, and, let us 

 turn where we will from the dwellings of man, 

 I) 



