THE BLACKBIRD. 
147 
In the stomachs of thirteen blackbirds examined by me in 
November, December, and January, in various years, were 
haws, seeds, and soft vegetable matter, coleopterous and other 
insects and their larvae, earth worms, HmacelU , &c. : in three were 
land-shells, one stomach alone exhibiting six specimens of Buli- 
mus lubricus, and ten of Ilelix radiata ; — the weather was mild 
when this bird was obtained, as it was when another filled 
with haws was procured. Minute Coleoptera were the most 
abundant food. In s umm er, I have seen the Helix nemoralis 
attacked by this species. During frost, the blackbird suffers 
much, and irrigated meadows are favourite feeding-ground: as 
are ditch-banks, overgrown with brambles, in winter generally. 
In the winter of 1813-14, there was an extremely severe and 
long-continued frost in the north of Ireland. At the commence- 
ment of the thaw, above a hundred birds, chiefly blackbirds and 
thrushes, were found floating dead on the stream flowing from a 
spring at Ballynafeigh, near Belfast. It was believed that the 
birds had been tempted to the place by the spring (which at its 
immediate source remained unfrozen) and by the comparative 
shelter of overhanging trees. Water was extremely scarce in the 
neighbourhood. The birds were considered to have foundered 
from time to time during the continuance of the frost, though 
noticed only on its breaking up. 
Several native specimens of the blackbird variegated with white 
—in some instances obviously the result of disease — have come 
under my notice in Belfast ; the tarsi and toes were sometimes 
marked with white. Correspondents mention the occurrence of these 
varieties in all quarters of the island. A friend has remarked two 
pied ones at the same time flying about his demesne. A few 
notes on the subject may be given. January 20th, 1838. 1 was 
shown by Mr. Wm. Marshall, of Belfast, a male blackbird, either 
twenty or twenty-one years old, which had been taken from the 
nest by a waiter at an hotel in Dungannon, and kept by him from 
that period until a few days ago, when it died. Its entire head 
was bald or destitute of feathers ; the wings displayed as much 
white as black ; the quills being white, and the coverts black. 
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