TURDINA. 13 
THE BLACKBIRD. 
TuRDUS MERULA, Jinnzus. 
The Blackbird, “ the Ouzel-cock so black of hue” of Shakespeare, 
is of general distribution throughout the British Islands, where it 
may be considered as a resident, excepting in some of the bleaker 
islands ; but even in the Outer Hebrides it is increasing as a breeding- 
species, and it now nests in Orkney, and is said to have done so in 
Shetland,-to which it is chiefly an autumn and winter visitor. Like 
the Mistle-Thrush, and probably for the same reasons, the Blackbird 
has spread northward and westward of late years ; in several places 
supplanting the Ring-Ouzel; while in addition to our native-bred 
birds, some of which are partially migratory, large numbers visit 
us in autumn and winter. 
In the Feroes the Blackbird has occurred in spring, it un- 
doubtedly wandered to Iceland in the winter of 1877, and it has 
been recorded from the island of Jan Mayen. About 67°N, lat. in 
Norway appears to be its highest breeding-range ; south of which it 
is found nesting down to the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, both 
sides of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and even in the sultry 
depths of the Ghér in Palestine. In Russia it does not appear to 
