136 



KEARTONS' NATURE PICTURES 



BLACKBIRD'S NEST IN T AN OLD PAIL. 



The nest is built in hedges, bushes, 

 trees, outbuildings, under sheltering 

 banks, on ledges of rock, in holes, in 

 old stone walls, and occasionally on the 

 ground amongst tall grass. During the 

 .spring of 1910 I either found or had 

 shown to me Blackbirds' nests in the fol- 



lowing odd situations : inside an old zinc 

 pail thrown on to the top of a recently 

 trimmed hedge, as shown in the accom- 

 panying illustration ; in a hole in a stone 

 wall, where a redstart might have been 

 expected to breed ; on the spring of an 

 old railway engine tender, standing in a 

 siding ; inside an old tin can which I 

 purposely placed amongst a few tender 

 twigs sprouting from the trunk of a 

 large oak. 



The structure is composed of small 

 twigs, rootlets, dry grass or moss inter- 

 mixed with mud and lined with fine 

 dead grass. As a rule, it is deeper than 

 the nest of the ring ouzel. 



The eggs number from four to six, 

 although seven and even eight have 

 upon rare occasions been found. They 

 are dull bluish-green in ground colour, 

 spotted, blotched, and sometimes 

 streaked with reddish-brown and grey. 

 Like those of the ring ouzel they are 

 subject to variation, not only in ground 

 colour, but in the size and density of 

 the markings. 



