OP BIRDS. 
Uo 
BLACK-BIRD. 
This well known songster docs not soar 
up to the clouds, like the lark, to make his 
voice resound through the air, but keeps 
steady in the slmdy groves, which he fills 
with his melodious notes. Early at dawn, 
late at dusk, he continues his pleasing me- 
lody ; and when incarcerated in the narrow 
space of a prison-cage, 'still cheerful and 
merry, he strives to repay the kindness of 
his keeper, by singing to him his natural 
strains ; and beguiles his irksome hours of 
captivity, by studying and imitating his 
master’s whistle. The name of this bird is 
sufficiently expressive of the general colour 
of his body. He feeds upon berries, fruits, 
insects, &c. 
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