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CHAPTER II. 
THE BLACKBIRD. 
Its Habitat. — I earnestly advise everyone who has the 
chance, to keep a blackbird. He is such a jovial, jolly fellow. 
His whistle is so free, so hearty, so mellow. Captivity has no 
bad effect on his spirits ; indeed, to judge from his behaviour, 
he is very glad to be saved the trouble of providing for him- 
self, and happy to pay you for his board and lodging with 
whole sheaves of musical notes. Bear in mind, however, that 
the blackbird is a songster who knows his value, and is not to 
be imposed on. You stifle him up in a mite of a cage, in 
which there is so little room to turn, that his tail (he is par- 
ticularly proud of his tail) is scrubbed all to rags against the 
bars, and it is but little music you will get out of him ; but 
give him a big house, with nice white wicker bars, and 
plenty of space between each, and he will show his apprecia- 
tion of your kindness. I have heard it asserted that this 
daybreak music of the blackbird’s is a nuisance, that it 
disturbs the slumbers of good folks who love to lie abed ; but, 
for my part, I have no sympathy with such sluggards. Let 
such fogies pull their bed- curtains about them, and fill their 
ears with wool, while you and I, boys, vote for blackbird 
music and early rising. 
The blackbird, in a wild state, is a very cautious and wary 
bird, and exhibits considerable cunning in luring the sportsman 
or bird’s-nest hunter from the vicinity of its home. It will 
lead you a long chase over hedgerows and fields, until it 
imagines you are at a safe distance from its home, and then, 
suddenly and unperceived by you, darting through some 
hedge, swiftly returns to its nest. 
This denizen of the woods, in common with the rest of the 
thrush family, begins to build its nest and breed at a very 
early season of the year. So early in the year as the middle 
of February, the bird’s pleasant notes may be heard echoing 
through the bare leafless woods in all parts of the country ; 
of which a well-known writer on natural history remarks : “The 
power and quality of tone of the blackbird is first-rate, and for 
these he is justly more celebrated than for execution or variety 
of notes. His clear, mellow, fluty pipe is heard first in the 
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