S6 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



sunrise, and after five o'clock in the evening, in the 

 latter part of April's fresh and vernal month, are the 

 times the Blackbird's powers of song are heard to best 

 advantage. 



The Blackbird pairs early in the season, sometimes 

 late in the month of February, although the nest is not 

 found quite as soon as the nest of the Song-thrush. The 

 nest of the Blackbird is placed in various situations. 

 You frequently find it amongst the evergreens, yew, 

 laurel, holly, bay, or ivy, it matters not which ; then 

 you occasionally find it some forty feet or more up the 

 branches of the forest tree ; while yet again the ground 

 alone supports it, and the hedgerows are often selected. 

 I have known, the Blackbird build its nest in a shed. I 

 have also found it simply placed on a stone projecting 

 from a wall, from which it could be removed and re- 

 placed without any anxiety for the birds forsaking it. 

 The nest is built of dry grasses, sometimes a few slender 

 twigs, a little moss, and lined, in the first place, with 

 wet mud alone ; this is again lined with the finer 

 grasses, and when dry the whole structure is very firm 

 and compact. The eggs are four, five, and even six in 

 number, and, like the nesting-site, subject to no little 

 variety, both in size, shape, and markings. Many of the 

 eggs are very small ; some are pear-shaped, others 

 almost round. The ground colour on many is greenish- 

 blue, spotted and blotched with rich reddish brown ; 

 others have the ground colour more clouded, and a zone 

 of colouring matter round the end of the &%'g. But the 

 most curious variety are pale bluish-green in ground 

 colour, faintly marked with a few claret spots, or, not 

 unfrequently, quite pure and spotless. Both birds sit 

 upon the eggs or young, the male in many cases quite 

 as frequently as the female. When the nest is ap- 



