Birds of Britain 



the SongThrush will have nearly completed her nest, before oui 

 sable friend begins to think of matrimonial cares. Towards 

 the end of February his clear flute-like notes will be heard 

 from the shrubbery or hedgerow — a song which, if more 

 mellow in tone, is far shorter and more monotonous than 

 that of the Song Thrush, although the performance of some 

 individual Blackbirds is longer and more pleasing. He 

 will now sing almost continuously, with the exception of a 

 few short intervals spent in chasing his mate, who, unlike 

 him, wears a dull suit of russet brown. And he will have 

 to prove himself a preux chevalier ere he can win his lady 

 fair, for there will almost certainly be two or three other 

 suitors to fight, and the victor alone can claim the lady, while 

 the ousted competitors retire from the field. This extreme 

 combativeness makes the species appear scarcer than is 

 really the case, as each pair will claim suzerain rights over 

 a comparatively large space. The nest is built low down 

 in some bush or hedgerow, on the ground in a bank, in a 

 furze bush or on a heath, and is formed entirely of grass 

 and bents, with a little mud for the foundation, but well 

 lined with finer bents ; it is rather larger in diameter, and 

 shallower, than that of the Thrush. The eggs, four to six 

 in number, have a pale blue ground colour, thickly mottled 

 with reddish markings, sometimes -uniformly distributed 

 over its surface, at others confined to broader blotches 

 forming a ring round its larger end, or again, in some cases, 

 the markings may be entirely absent. The young, like 

 those of most Thrushes, are fed almost entirely on earth- 

 worms, though insects are also swallowed ; two or three 

 broods are reared in the season, and as summer advances 



16 



