56 
PICTURES OF BIRD LIFE. 
year. Its song is sweet and mellow—more of a whistle than the thrush’s warble— 
and is frequently heard early in a morning of spring, and again at evening, 
especially during a shower. It continues this song until the ordinary summer 
moult. When the schoolboy, with his gun, is stealing along a hedgerow in pursuit 
of rabbits or fieldfares, often does he execrate the noisy alarm of the Blackbird, 
which at once gives the warning of danger to all animal life near. The true song 
is not remarkable for much precision or variety, but education will cause the bird 
to sing several airs without mixing them. It is a mimic, and has been heard to 
imitate a nightingale as well as a barn-door cock. Pepys in 1663 kept a tame Black¬ 
bird, of which he writes:—“May 23rd. Waked this morning between four and five 
by my Blackbird, which whistled as well as I ever heard any; only it is the begin¬ 
ning of many tunes very well, but then leaves them and goes no further.” 
The Blackbird is an early builder, and its nest is easily discovered before 
spring verdure clothes the bushes. A thicket overhanging a pond, or on one of 
the thicker binders of a hedge, are favourite localities. An evergreen bush is 
another common situation for the nest. This is formed of coarse roots, twigs, and 
bents plastered with earth, and is lined with finer bents and roots. We have found 
one with a couple of yards of coarse string wound round it. The eggs are four or 
five in number, of a light greenish-blue, mottled with rust-colour. Worms form the 
food of the young ones, and there are generally two broods, one very early in 
spring, the second hatched in May. The two sexes differ materially in colour. The 
male is dressed in sooty black, with the bill and orbits of the eyes orange-yellow; the 
female is much more rusty in appearance, the upper plumage being uniform umber- 
brown, while the throat and under parts are orange-brown, with a few dark-coloured 
spots. The Blackbird is found throughout the year over most parts of Great Britain 
and Ireland. In the wilder and more hilly parts, however—as, for instance, 
Dartmoor and Sutherlandshire—its place is filled by the ring-ousel (71 torquatus ). 
Partial migrations of Blackbirds undoubtedly take place on the east coast, if not 
elsewhere through the kingdom. It is said to be only known in Shetland as a 
winter visitant, while in Northumberland and Norfolk flights have been noticed 
arriving in November, and flying in a south-western direction. We have seen the 
hedgerows in a similar manner in north-east Lincolnshire abounding in Blackbirds 
in autumn, where a few days before and after none would be found. It seems a 
hardier bird than the thrush, and in our own garden has survived the cold winter 
of 1878-79, followed by the Avet spring of the latter year, better than its relative the 
thrush. It extends to the Ural Mountains, and is a winter resident in Persia; 
