THE BLACKBIRD. 143 



dated November, 1836, that "last year numbers of people went 

 to Mr. Boxwell's of Lyngestown, to bear a blackbird in his shrub- 

 beries, that clapped his wings and crew like a bantam cock." 

 In a letter from Edward Benn, Esq., dated Oakland, Brough- 

 shane (county of Antrim), August 31st, 1840, a bird pos- 

 sessed of the same ludicrous accomplishment, is thus noticed : 

 " We have not yet done with our old friend the crowing blackbird. 

 A man wishing to have some of his breed, robbed the nest, which 

 contained four young ; two he left, and the other two he put into 

 a large cage, and removed to his house. The old cock came con- 

 stantly with food for the young in the cage, going into it and feed- 

 ing them ; the man watching for such an opportunity, made a run 

 at the cage and secured him, but when carrying it into the 

 house, the bird made his escape through a hole in the wires. 

 It was supposed he would not come back : he, however, returned 

 to feed the young as usual ; but instead of going into the cage, he 

 went to the outside and put the worm through the wires. It may 

 have been instinct that prompted him to find food for his young, 

 though removed to a distance, and in an unusual place ; but when 

 he found there was danger in feeding them in the old way, it 

 certainly showed calculation to find out a way of doing it equally 

 well without running risk. It was also very curious to see him 

 going to feed the young when any person was watching : — the 

 cage was in a potato garden, and he would fly to the low end of 

 the garden and creep up the furrow so that it was impossible to 

 see him, until he had finished his duty, when he flew off with great 

 noise. The hen never appeared, and it was supposed she had 

 been killed. To all that is here stated, I was a witness, though 

 not fortunate enough to hear him crow, as he entirely ceased 

 early in summer." 



A crowing blackbird is particularly noticed in the 4th volume 

 of Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, p. 433. 



The blackbird builds early in the north of Ireland, often com- 

 mencing about the middle of March and occasionally sooner. In 

 the unusually early spring of 1846, the following occurred in the 



