110 



20 



snipes, &c, the number was not to exceed twelve." Mr. Rowley adds: — "The old song gives 

 twenty-four Blackbirds in a royal pie." 



Hewitson's account of the nesting of the Blackbird and the figures of its eggs are very good, 

 and we give the former in extenso : — " In its time of incubation, and in the position of its nest, the 

 Blackbird differs very slightly from the Thrush. The nest, which is sometimes very much exposed, 

 may be met with in thorn hedges, or in single bushes, in evergreens, occasionally on the top of a 

 naked stake-fence, on the summit of a wall, or in a heap of dead sticks. I have seen it within a 

 few inches of the ground, on the stump of a felled ti - ee. It is formed chiefly of grass, with a few 

 dry sticks, roots, and dead leaves, eemented together with mud, which it uses in a much greater 

 quantity than the Thrush, and is then lined with fine dry grass. The eggs, which are four or 

 five in number, vary much. Figure 1 represents a common variety, although not the most 

 typical I could have chosen ; I have figured it to make the drawings — at the same time that they 

 represent each species — illustrative of the whole genus : figure 2, a variety, much resembling eggs 

 of the Ring-Ouzel: a variety similar to the last, except that the ground-colour is lighter and the 

 spots smaller, is not imfrequent. I have a beautiful egg of this species, of a clear spotless light 

 blue, with the whole of the larger end suffused with reddish brown. The Rev. A. C. Smith has 

 kindly sent me a very beautiful egg, such as 1 have never seen before; it is of a clear green-blue, 

 with numerous minute spots and some large blotches of delicate light red-brown and purple, with 

 two or three spots of black at the larger end. My friend Mr. Henry Doubleday found several 

 nests of the Blackbird in Epping Forest, the eggs of which were of the fine blue of the Thrush, 

 and without spot. The eggs of the Blackbird are frequently of an oval form, the smaller end 

 being rounded and obtuse, a character which 1 have not noticed in the allied species." The 

 mildness of the season has much to do with the early breeding of the species, for Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney, jun., tells us that he knew of a nest at Southrepps, in Norfolk, on the 5th of February, 

 INT.! ; and the following extract from Thompson's ' Birds of Ireland' bears witness to the fact: — 

 "The Blackbird builds early in the north of Ireland, often commencing about the middle of 

 March and occasionally sooner. In the unusually early spring of 1846, the following occurred 

 in the neighbourhood of Belfast. On the 22nd of February a nest with three eggs was seen ; 

 on the 1st of April, the young made their appearance in a nest at the Falls; on the 14th of this 

 month a nest containing three young birds some time 'out' was discovered at Cromoe House. 

 Three? broods were produced in the nest, the last of which made their appearance on the 3rd of 

 July. The three broods followed immediately after each other, and were all seen by Mr. J. R. 

 Garrett, to whom the nest itself did not seem in the least degree altered." Our friend Dr. E. 

 Rey, of Halle, tells us that he found fresh eggs of this bird in Germany from the 16th of April 

 to the 22nd of June, and in one instance on the Sth of July. " The number of eggs is generally 

 five, seldom six; but in other localities, Thuringia for instance, they more often lay the larger 

 number. Some pairs which may have wintered here, lay much earlier than the rest ; and I 

 found fledged young on the 26th of April, 1868, whereas most pairs had then scarcely finished 

 building their nests." He further informs us that forty eggs taken in Germany average 28'3 by 

 20-8, the largest measuring 32-0 by 22 - 5, and the smallest 24*0 by 190 millimetres respectively. 



In a letter dated April 3rd, 1872, Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., writes to us : — " I lost a nest of 

 young Blackbirds on Monday last by rats ; at least I suspect them of being the cause, as it was 



