THE BLACKBIRD. 
57 
breeds, but is not abundant, in Syria and Palestine ; and is common from Tunis to 
Morocco, the Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores. 
Mr. Dixon (“Rural Bird Life”) furnishes a truthful and pleasant picture of the 
Blackbird in the garden. “As you wander through the shrubberies, say when the 
shadows of night are falling, you will often hear a rustling noise under the 
spreading laurels, amongst the withered leaves. It is the Blackbird, frightened at 
your approach. If you alarm him still further, he dashes rapidly out, and with 
loud and startling cries flies off to some safe cover. Conceal yourself under the 
friendly branches of a yew-tree and wait patiently. You hear their loud startling 
cries in all directions, and catch occasional glimpses of their dark forms flitting 
hither and thither in the gloom. ‘ Pink, pink, pink, tac, tac, tac, tac, is heard on 
every side. Now one comes fluttering into the bush under which you are con¬ 
cealed, and his notes startle you by his nearness. A short distance away another 
answers. Another and another, in different directions, also swell the noisy clamour, 
and you hear on every side their fluttering wings. Gradually the cries cease in 
number as the birds settle down to rest; a solitary cry will break the stillness 
of the evening air, but remain unanswered, and the only sounds that break the 
oppressive silence are the evening notes of the robin. Occasionally they roost 
together in winter in great companies among spruce coppices, and the like, these 
being probably not the birds indigenous to the district, but immigrants. Pied and 
even albino specimens of Blackbirds are not unknown. The bird itself, though 
shy for the most part, is at times very bold in defence of its young, and will 
even intimidate a cat. Its pugnacious propensities in spring must be familiar to 
all who have studied the habits of lawn-frequenting birds. Jesse relates a curious 
instance of affection with regard to this bird. A very young Blackbiid was put 
into a cage which was hung up under the porch of the lodge. After the bird 
had become reconciled to its confinement, and had begun to feed, an older Black¬ 
bird was caught and put into the same cage. This old bird moped and refused 
to feed itself, and would probably have died, had not the younger brought it food 
in its bill, and in every respect treated it as if it had been its mother, nourishing 
it with the greatest perseverance for some time. 
The young Blackbird, it may be worth noting, is of a rusty brown colour 
until it has passed the second autumnal moult. Many caged birds have been 
known to live to a great age, and it is upon record that a Blackbird has been 
known to live in confinement for more than twenty years. Its congeners are the 
song and missel thrushes, the ring-ousel, and those winter immigrants, the fieldfare 
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