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« Most birds become more or less vociferous at the approach of night, and the Blackbird 
particularly so. Ав you wander through the shrubberies in the evening you will often hear a 
rustling noise amongst the withered leaves under the shrubs and plants. A rustle and then a pause, 
another more hasty movement, and at last a Blackbird dashes rapidly out, and, uttering his loud 
harsh сту of alarm, flits off in unsteady flight and hastily disappears again in the nearest cover. Ав 
the darkness deepens you have good opportunity of watching their actions when retiring to rest. 
Conceal yourself under the spreading branches of a dark gloomy yew tree and wait patiently ; you 
will hear their loud cries in all directions, and catch occasional glimpses of their dark forms flitting 
hither and thither in the gloom: pink-pink-pink, tac-tac-tac, is heard on every side. Now a bird 
comes fluttering into the bush under which you are concealed, and his notes startle you by their 
nearness. A short distance away another answers: another and another in different directions also 
swells the noisy clamour; and you hear on every side their fluttering wings amongst the evergreens 
around you. As night comes on and all objects lose outline and distinctness, the cries cease and the 
birds settle down to rest. А solitary bird will, perhaps, dash past just fresh from the pasture-lands 
outside; or a frightened bird will utter his alarm-note as he shifts his quarters; yet all else is now 
silent, save indeed the few last evening notes of the Robin, or, perhaps, the purr of the Goatsucker. 
*'The Blackbird is with difficulty flushed. It is a skulking bird, and prefers to hop quickly 
under the hedgerows and brushwood rather than take wing, its motions partaking more of those of a 
mouse or a rat than of a bird. When compelled to take wing, its flight for a short distance is 
remarkably unsteady. Turning and twisting from side to side, it dashes quickly away, and, as a rule, 
just as suddenly and unexpectedly alights in the nearest cover. Across an open place, however, the 
Blackbird flies quite steadily, and his motion through the air is rapid. Rarely, indeed, does the 
bird fly at any great height; and should he be compelled to fly far, he seems to prefer skulking along 
the hedgerows or close to the ground from bush to bush rather than expose himself to view. Іп the 
pine-forests at Arcachon, where both the Blackbird and the Song-Thrush winter in some numbers, it 
was especially noticeable that, whilst the latter were generally seen in the loftiest pines, the former 
were exclusively found in the underwood, which there consists of furze, broom, and heath, the latter 
frequently attaining a height of from six to ten feet. As a rule, Blackbirds are extremely sedentary 
birds, rarely make excursions to any distance, and for weeks, nay, whole seasons, regularly frequent 
one locality. Тһе Blackbird's flights are almost entirely restricted to those taken from or to its 
feeding-grounds, should they not be immediately adjoining its haunts. From the shrubberies to the 
gardens it regularly passes, especially in the early morning and in the dusk of the evening; yet 
the bird is apparently always in а hurry, and anxious to reach the shelter and seclusion of its haunt 
as soon as possible. 
* There is no reason to think that the Blackbird is migratory in the British Islands. Many birds 
shift their quarters, either from the colder districts and those parts of the uplands which they haunt 
in summer, or they quit the open fields when the hedgerows are rendered bare by the wintry blasts ; 
but the bird is not a migrant in the accepted meaning of the word. In severe winters, however, the 
numbers of our resident birds are perceptibly increased by birds from the continent driven south by 
stress of weather. On Heligoland, that interesting little island, of all other places the best for 
observing the annual movements of the bird world, the Blackbird is regularly obtained on spring and 
autumn migration, clearly demonstrating the fact that the species is, at all events, a migratory one in 
the northern portions of its range. 
* Morning and evening are the times when the Blackbird usually seeks his food ; and then you 
can study its graceful attitudes and sprightly bearing to perfection. In spring and summer it is, for 
the most part, obtained from the grass-lands—the lawns and pastures near its haunts. At the 
morning's dawn, or when the sun is well down in the west, you can observe them with ease. One by 
one you can see them fly rapidly out of the dense shrubbery or wood and alight amongst the grass. 
