THE BLACKBIRD J 



eggs, although we afterwards found that five was more commonly 

 the number than four, and that even six was very frequent ; they 

 are very similar to those of the Blackbird, and even more so to 

 the Ring Ouzel. The Fieldfare is the most abundant bird in Nor- 

 way, and is generally diffused over that part which we visited, 

 building, as already noticed, in society ; two hundred nests or 

 more being frequently seen within a very small space.' Oddly 

 enough two hundred was just the number of a colony of nests in 

 Thuringen on the estate of Baron von Berlepsch, which were those 

 of Fieldfares he had induced to come by trimming the trunks of 

 a long row of Black Poplar trees so as to afford good sites for the nests. 

 The present editor visited these in 1906. Some few instances are 

 on record of the Fieldfare breeding in this country, but these are 

 exceptional. In general they leave us in April and May, though 

 they have been observed as late as the beginning of June. 



THE BLACKBIRD 



TURDUS MERULA 



Male — plumage wholly black ; bill and orbits of the eyes orange yellow ; feet 

 black. Female — upper plumage sooty brown ; throat pale brown with 

 darker spots ; breast reddish brown passing into dark ash brown ; bill 

 and legs dusky. Length ten inches ; breadth sixteen inches. Eggs 

 greenish grey, spotted and speckled with light red brown. 



With his glossy coat and yellow beak the Blackbird is a hand- 

 somer bird than the Thrush ; his food is much the same : he builds 

 his nest in similar places ; he is a great glutton when gooseberries 

 are ripe, and his rich mellow song is highly inspiriting. But he 

 is suspicious and wary ; however hard pressed he may be by hunger, 

 you will rarely see him hunting for food in the open field. He 

 prefers the solitude and privacy of ' the bush'. In a furze-brake, 

 a coppice, a wooded water-course, or a thick hedgerow, he chooses 

 his feeding ground, and allows no sort of partnership. Approach 

 his haunt, and if he simply mistrusts you, he darts out flying 

 close to the ground, pursues his course some twenty yards and 

 dips again into the thicket, issuing most probably on the other 

 side, and ceasing not until he has placed what he considers a safe 

 distance between himself and his enemy. But with all his cunning 

 he fails in prudence ; it is not in his nature to steal away silently. 

 If he only suspects that all is not right, he utters repeatedly a low 

 cluck, which seems to say, ' This is no place for me, I must be off '. 

 But if he is positively alarmed, his loud vociferous cry rings out 

 like a bell, informing all whom it may concern that ' danger is at 

 hand, and it behoves all who value their safety to fly '. Most 

 animals understand the cry in this sense, and catch the alarm. 

 Many a time has the deer-stalker been disappointed of a shot, who, 

 after traversing half a mile on his hands and knees between rocks 



