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not so numerous as the Thrush; but the great improvements near Stornoway will no doubt attract 
the species more in future, and it may therefore be expected to increase. On Harris it is likewise 
resident, and also on North Uist, but in very limited numbers; while on Benbecula it is wholly 
absent in summer, being only a winter visitant. On Iona and Mull it is a winter bird only; but on 
some of the other inner islands it is resident. I have found several pairs of Blackbirds on Ailsa 
Craig; one of these had their nest in a turret-hole of the old castle ruins, nearly halfway towards 
the summit of the island. I remember, one very hot day in July, hearing a Blackbird sing in a cave 
there; it had penetrated to the inmost recesses of this dark abode, which must have been a familiar 
haunt, as on going in to ascertain its extent, I found the bird was able to steer directly out of it, 
without flitting with side jerks, until it regained the entrance. In some districts of Scotland 
Blackbirds have of late years multiplied to a great extent; the island of Arran, for example, since 
the destruction of birds of prey there, has been completely overrun with them. After the breeding- 
season is over, these birds, in Ayrshire, repair in great numbers to the sca-coast between Girvan and 
Ballantrae, seeking shelter in hot days under blocks of stone and large flat rocks lying on the 
beach. On one occasion 1 turned out eighteen Blackbirds from under a flat rock, resting on 
broken stones, by poking them with a walking-stick. I have seen Sparrow-Hawks and Merlins 
(apparently aware of this habit) hunting these rocks at midday, where the Blackbirds were 
all concealed, but pertinaciously beating about in the neighbourhood, knowing their quarry to 
be there, though unable in the meantime to dislodge it." In Ireland Mr. R. J. Ussher says that 
it breeds commonly in every county, but more sparingly in the extreme west, as at Valencia, Achill, 
the Mullet, and Western Donegal, where is is chiefly known as a winter visitor (Proc. R. Irish Acad. 
(3) iii. p. 409). In Norway, according to the note given by Professor Collett in Dresser's * Birds 
of Europe,’ the species is distributed “ over the whole of Norway up to the Polar Circle; and the 
Messrs. Godman found it nesting at Bodö above 67°. In the province of Trondhjem it breeds 
tolerably numerously, both on the larger islands, such as Hitteren, and in the interior. ЈЕ is 
particularly abundant in the coast-districts of Christiansund and Bergen, but is scarcer in the eastern 
dales, as, for instance, Gudbrandsdal, Valders, and (Esterdal. On the fell-sides it is no longer found 
in the subalpine region. Individuals passing the winter with us may be seen annually on the coast 
up to Trondhjemsfiord." 
In Sweden, according to Nilsson, it is a rare species in the north, but is found in the south at 
all seasons of the year, and in Skane it is even more plentiful in the winter than in the summer. 
The same author states that the Blackbird was found by Lóvenhjelm in Lyksele in Lapland, at the 
foot of the Issjak Fjeld; but neither Wheelwright nor Sommerfeldt met with it in that country, nor 
is it mentioned by Dr. Pleske in his work on the Birds of the Kola Peninsula. Von Wright states 
that it breeds very sparingly in Southern Finland, and he found families of these birds at Drumsó 
near Helsingfors, and on an island near Borgá, but Mr. Dresser never saw a Blackbird in that 
country. 
In Denmark it is said by Mr. Benyon to be the commonest of the Thrushes that breed in that 
country ; it is in some districts more plentiful than T'urdus musicus, but is not so generally distributed, 
most of the old birds migrating in winter. 
'The young birds first arrive in Heligoland in the autumn migration in October, and the species 
visits the island till the middle of November, though some of the old ones, driven by want of 
food from the north, are found up to the end of December. In the spring they return in March, 
the old males being the first to arrive, followed a week or two later by the females and the young 
birds of last season, and the migration lasts up to the middle of April (Gátke, * Heligoland, Engl. 
ed. p. 253). 
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