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THE BLACKBIRD. 

 (Turdus merula.) 



THIS is a lively, cheery bird, an ornament to the thickets 

 and clearings of the woods. Just before the evening 

 twilight, in company with others of the Thrush family, 

 it seeks the clearings and openings of the woods, and 

 delights the eye of the beholder, by its hopping here and 

 there, its darting and hunting busily dragging worms 

 out of the ground and attacking all the mischievous 

 Chafer family. Then it flies on to the summit of a bush 

 or an over-spreading bough, and its powerful, pure flute- 

 like song resounds through the wood, and makes the 

 listener forget all else. In autumn it eats the berries, 

 sometimes fruit ; but being very timid it is easily driven 

 off. It is a useful bird and a pleasure to eye and ear. 



This is the bird which is so often taken from the nest 

 .and reared. The male bird fetches a good price in 

 Hungary, for it learns to whistle tunes even from 

 street-organs. Because it learns so easily, it sometimes 

 happens, that in the middle of a beautiful tune which it 

 has been taught, some most excruciating sound is heard, 

 reminiscent of an ungreased cart-wheel. In Germany 

 the Blackbird has become a town-bird; and people 

 spread dried ant-eggs, chopped meat, and maggots, and 

 make a nest for it near their vine-covered windows. It 

 :stays there also during the winter. 



And what about the East? Why are children ever 

 brought up in such a way that they seize a stone directly 

 <they see a Blackbird ? 



