BLACKBIRD. 213 
same notes are too frequently repeated. This bird com- 
mences his song early in the spring; and it has been 
observed that he occasionally sings his best strain during 
the continuance of a warm April shower. He continues 
singing at intervals throughout the summer, and till the 
regular moulting of the season commences. 
Like some other birds gifted with great powers of voice, 
the Blackbird is-an imitator of the sounds made by others. 
He has been heard to imitate closely part of the song of the 
Nightingale; three or four imstances are recorded of his 
having been known to crow exactly like the Common Cock, 
apparently enjoying the sound of the responses made by the 
fowls of the neighbouring farm-yard; and Mr. Neville 
Wood, in his British Song Birds, has mentioned an 
instance in which he heard a Blackbird cackle as a hen does 
after laying. 
The Blackbird pairs and breeds very early in the spring, 
generally choosing the centre of some thick bush in which 
to fix and conceal the nest. The outside is formed of coarse 
roots and strong bents of grass, plastered over or intermixed 
with dirt on the inner surface, forming a stiff wall: it is 
then lined with finer bents. The eggs are four or five in 
number, sometimes, but rarely, six, of a light blue colour, 
speckled and spotted with pale reddish brown: the eggs of 
the Blackbird are occasionally found of a uniform blue, 
without any spots whatever; the length of the egg one 
inch two lines, the breadth ten lines. The first brood 
of young are hatched by the end of March, or early in 
April. 
The Blackbird is very generally distributed. It is found 
over the whole of the counties of the South of England 
from Sussex to Cornwall, it is common in Wales; and, 
according to Mr. Thompson of Belfast, it is very common 
