4 
specimen, however, in the Museum collection, obtained by Mr. Barody on Mount Lebanon, is more 
rufous. If the Palestine bird should ultimately prove to belong to a district, it will have to bear the 
name of Merula syriaca (H. & Е.). 
Mr. E. Cavendish Taylor has recorded a specimen of the Blackbird from Alexandria (Ibis, 1891, 
p. 474). 
A female specimen obtained by Fraser in Tunis is of the same grey type as the Palestine bird, as 
is also another female in Mr. Whitaker's collection: the latter specimen is remarkable for its bright 
yellow bill Mr. Whitaker (Ibis, 1894, p. 86) says that he found the Blackbird common in the 
wooded districts north of Feriana, but south of this town he does not remember to have met with it. 
In Algeria it is also plentiful, and in the province of Constantine it it far more abundant than the 
Song-Thrush, according to Mr. Dixon, who noticed it from the coast southwards, even to the oases 
of El Kantara and Biskra (Ibis, 1882, p. 568). Іп Marocco it was found everywhere common by 
Capt. Savile Reid (Ibis, 1885, p. 242). Favier says that it is resident near Tangier and very plentiful, 
nesting three times in the year (Irby, Orn. Gibr. p. 85). In the Canary Islands, writes Mr. Meade- 
Waldo, it is an abundant resident and breeds, while a good number of migrants also arrive (Ibis, 
1889, p. 2, 1893, p. 187). Тһе Hon. Cecil Baring and Mr. Ogilvie Grant also brought a good series 
of specimens from Madeira, where they procured the species up to 5000 feet. I can perceive no 
differences between the Blackbirds of Madeira and the Canaries and those from other parts of Western 
Europe, and specimens from the Azores seem to me to be true M. merula. In the latter group 
Mr. F. D. Godman met with the species оп Fayal in February, on St. Michael's in March, and on 
Flores in May. | 
The following account of the habits of the Blackbird is extracted from Seebohm's * History of 
British Birds” :— 
“Тһе Blackbird is shy and wary ; and his haunts are chosen in situations well adapted to afford 
him concealment and seclusion. Не inhabits the woodlands, plantations, dense hedgerows, gardens, 
and orchards ; but perhaps the places he favours most are the shrubberies and thickets of evergreens. 
Here, where Ше laurels, the yews, and the hollies spread their glossy branches, and the ivy festoons 
almost every forest-tree, the Blackbird is found in greatest abundance, more especially во should 
lawns or pasture-fields adjoin them. Тһе Blackbird also loves the fences in the fields in summer, where 
the vegetation is thick and close, and more particularly so if small streams of water wander beside 
them. Тһе briars and the brambles growing most luxuriantly over the hazel-bushes, with here and 
there а guelder rose or blackthorn bush, afford a friendly shelter; and the banks clothed densely 
with herbage, wild hyacinths, primroses, anemones, and fern-tufts afford a fitting site for his nest. 
But in winter, when these situations lose their verdure, the Blackbird quits them for the seclusion 
and warmth of the evergreens in the shrubberies and gardens. In spare numbers the Blackbird also 
frequents the upland districts on those broken tracts of country which occur between the cultivated 
ground and the moors. Неге he frequents the dense thickets of thorn and bramble by the side of 
the little streams, or, further in the open, the tall holly bushes and gorse clumps occasionally inter- 
mingled with a birch or mountain-ash. Wherever the upland farmhouses nestle amongst clumps of 
trees and are surrounded with a partially neglected garden or orchard, the Blackbird will also be 
found. In fact he follows man to the wilds as long as sufficient vegetation exists to afford him the 
seclusion which he loves. 
“Тһе Blackbird is especially fond of swampy places and the neighbourhood of water. Wherever 
streams with well-wooded banks occur, there just as surely Blackbirds will be found ; and in the little 
swampy corners of woods and shrubberies they congregate, sometimes half a dozen birds taking wing 
together at your approach. Yet the Blackbird is not gregarious; and its presence here in company 
with its kindred is explained by a common purpose, the search for the food the swamps contain ; 
and each bird flits off solitary as it came. 
