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REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
menced his song at three in the morning; a fortnight earlier I heard one as early 
as half-past two; and in the middle of Summer I have listened to it before going 
to bed, when the twilight peeped in between the shutters upon the untired 
student thus admonished of the propriety of intermitting his labours/’ We too 
have listened to the Blackbird at all these unseemly hours; but to our ear never 
does the song appear so deliciously mellifluent as during those light and refreshing 
showers so frequent and so refreshing in the Summer of our temperate clime. 
Mr. Weir (p. 92) describes a matrimonial alliance, in a state of nature, 
between a male Blackbird and a female Thrush. Mr. W. did not see the eggs, 
on account of the nest being so cunningly concealed as to be with difficulty and 
only after a long time discovered; and the nest was one day carried off by birds’- 
nesters. It is to be regretted that no mention is made of the composition of 
the nest. 
Pennant, Montagu, and other estimable writers state that among the feathered 
tribes all the cares of life fall to the female, and that after the young are hatched 
the male ceases to sing. In many cases both these observations are correct > but 
perhaps as regards a still greater number of species they will not hold good. Mr. 
Weir’s observations on this subject are deserving of attention. The ensuing 
anecdote, from the pen of Mr. T. D. Weir, will also be read with interest:— 
“ That some of the notes of birds are a language which conveys a direct meaning, may, I 
presume, be inferred from the following interesting occurrence, which took place at half-past three 
o’clock,—an occurrence which I witnessed with the most anxious curiosity, and which I could 
scarcely have believed had I not seen it. The female [Blackbird] having brought a large Worm, 
I am sure not more than four inches in length, put it into the mouth of one of the young, and 
then flew away. Upon her return, having perceived that it was sticking in its throat, she set up 
the moan of distress. To her assistance her cry immediately brought her partner, who likewise 
seemed to be a\v are of the consequences. To force it down they made several efforts, but in this 
they were unsuccessful. Strange to tell, the male at length discovered the cause of the catas¬ 
trophe. That part of the Worm which by being entangled among the feathers of the breast had 
been prevented from going down, he carefully disengaged, and held it up with his bill, until, after 
the most unusual efforts, the young bird at length swallowed it. But so much exhausted was it 
that it remained nearly three hours without moving, and with its eyes shut. The male, having 
alighted upon a tree a few yards from his nest, poured forth some of his most enchanting notes—a 
song of rejoicing, no doubt, for the narrow escape from death which one of his family had lately 
made.”—p. 94. 
“ The flesh of the Blackbird,” according to our author, “ is excellent, as indeed 
is that of all our other species, although, I believe, very seldom used as an article 
of food. The good people who unhesitatingly feed on innocent lambs, gentle 
Doves, and confiding pullets, look with a kind of abhorrence on the cruel slaughter 
of Blackbirds. This, however, it is obvious, is mere selfishness.” Our own 
objection to the destruction of singing birds for food is not on the score of cruelty, 
for that could not be gravely maintained by those who countenance the slaughter of 
cattle, &c .; but, in the first place, because—like the dishes of Nightingales 
