180 A DESCRIPTION OF 
THE BLACKBIRD. (Turdus Mcmla.) 
The smiling morn, the breathing spring, 
Invite the tuneful birds to sing ; 
And, while they warble from each spray, 
Love melts the universal lay. MALLET. 
THIS well-known songster does not soar up to the cloud?, 
like the lark, to make his voice resound through the air ; 
but keeps steady in the shady groves, which he fills with 
his melodious notes. Early at dawn, and late at dusk, he 
continues his pleasing melody ; and when incarcerated in 
the narrow space of a cage, cheerful still 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. 
Blackbirds build their nest with great art, making the 
outside of moss and slender twigs, cemented together and 
lined with clay, and covering the clay with soft materials, 
as hair, wool, and straw. The female lays four or five 
eggs, of a bluish green colour, spotted all over with 
brown. The bill is yellow, but in the female the upper 
part and point are blackish ; the inside of the mouth, and 
the circumference of the eyelids, are yellow. The name 
of this bird is sufficiently expressive of the general colour 
