SONG BIRDS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



It is one of the earliest birds to hail the morn, 

 and its note is heard till late in the evening. Un- 

 like most other birds, it will sing in wet weather. 

 Mr. Bowles pleasingly illustrates this in the fol- 

 lowing lines : — 



As some lone bird at day's departing hour 

 Sings in the sunbeam of the transient shower, 

 Forgetful though his wings be wet the while. 



When wild in the fields, the Blackbird feeds 

 promiscuously on berries and insects, snails, earth- 

 worms, &c. The female is of a brownish black, 

 with the breast of a reddish hue, and the belly 

 greyish : the throat is spotted with dark and light 

 brown. She builds her nest and hatches her 

 young sooner than others of the feathered tribe 

 in spring ; the first brood being hatched by the 

 end of March. The nest is placed in ivied walls, 

 old trees, and thick bushes, at a moderate height 

 from the ground. The outside or framework is 

 composed of moss, slender twigs, bents, and the 

 fibres of roots, all strongly cemented together 

 with moist clay ; the inside is lined with a thick 

 bedding of dry hay, bents, hair, or other soft 

 matter. She lays four or five eggs, which vary 

 sometimes considerably in colour. It is sometimes 

 found (says Mr. Rennie) that the masonry of the 

 clay is carried round the branch of the bush where 

 the nest may be built, in order to make it fast ; 

 which circumstance, as it is not of usual occurrence, 

 shows that the little architect was guided by intel- 

 ligence akin to rationality, and not by what is 

 usually understood by blind instinct.* 



* Architecture of Birds. 



