THE BLACKBIRD. 
143 
dated November, 1836, that "last year numbers of people went 
to Mr. Box well's of Lyngestown, to hear a blackbird in his shrub- 
beries, that clapped his wings and crew like a bantam cock.” 
In a letter from Edward Benn, Esq., dated Oakland, Brough- 
shane (county of Antrim), August 31st, 1840, a bird pos- 
sessed of the same ludicrous accomplishment, is thus noticed : 
"We have not yet done with our old friend the crowing blackbird. 
A man wishing to have some of his breed, robbed the nest, which 
contained four young ; two he left, and the other two he put into 
a large cage, and removed to his house. The old cock came con- 
stantly with food for the young in the cage, going into it and feed- 
ing them ; the man watching for such an opportunity, made a run 
at the cage and secured him, but when carrying it into the 
house, the bird made his escape through a hole in the wires. 
It was supposed he would not come back : he, however, returned 
to feed the young as usual ; but instead of going into the cage, he 
went to the outside and put the worm through the wires. It may 
have been instinct that prompted him to find food for his young, 
though removed to a distance, and in an unusual place ; but when 
he found there was danger in feeding them in the old way, it 
certainly showed calculation to find out a way of doing it equally 
well without running risk. It was also very curious to see him 
going to feed the young when any person was watching : the 
cage was in a potato garden, and he would fly to the low end of 
the garden and creep up the furrow so that it was impossible to 
see him, until he had finished his duty, when he flew off with great 
noise. The hen never appeared, and it was supposed she had 
been killed. To all that is here stated, I was a witness, though 
not fortunate enough to hear him crow, as he entirely ceased 
early in summer.” 
A crowing blackbird is particularly noticed in the 4th volume 
of Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, p. 433. 
The blackbird builds early in the north of Ireland, often com- 
mencing about the middle of March and occasionally sooner. In 
the unusually early spring of 1846, the following occurred in the 
