80 BLACK. BIRD.
oyer the green colour. Another variety is similar to the last, except
that the ground colour is lighter, and the spots smaller. Another, in
his possession, clear spotless light blue, with the whole of the larger
end Buffused with reddish brown. J. B. Ellman, Esq., of Battel,
relates in the 'Zoologist,' page 2180, that he had an egg in which
the spots were at the smaller end.
The Rev. (>. Snowden, of Stainland, near Halifax, writes me word
that he lias twice met with the variety of the egg which resembles
that of the Thrush, namely in being of a fine blue colour and without
spots, and1 he has obligingly forwarded two specimens of them to m e .
One of the nests which contained them was on a ledge in a very
high wall iti a quarry. N. Howe, Esq. tells me that he has taken
similar ones of a uniform dull blue. Some of the eggs are much
larger than others, and thev also yarv much in colour and in markings,
as aKo in shape, some being much more round, aud others much more
oval, than others: in some instances the smaller end is rounded and
obtuse. Archibald Hepburn, Esq. found some which had two shells,
the inner one of the ordinary colour and markings, and the outer
one also marked as usual, but paler in hue. The first brood, for
there are generally two, is hatched by the end of March or the beginning
or middle of April, and is abroad towards the end of May,
the second by the middle of July. Sometimes even three may be
reared, and in one instance, namely, in the year 1837, four successive
broods, seventeen young in all, were reared by a single pair, on the
island in the ornamental sheet of water in St. James's Park, London.
I n Ireland also three broods arc related by Mr. Thompson to have
been reared in one year, near Cromac House, .the last of which made
their appearance on the 3rd. of July, and a nest with eggs was seen
on the :22nd. of February. But this fecundity is not peculiar to
Ireland, being outdone by the Scottish Blackbirds, ' Hibernicus ipsis
11 iberuiores.' The Rev. George Gordon, of Elgin, Xorth-Britain,
thus records in the 'Zoologist,' p.p. 2297-2298, the following curious
instance of five successive nests having been made in a single year:
•—April 27th., 1848.—The young leave the first nest, built in a clump
of ivy on the top of a wall, four in number, one egg having been
abstracted from the nest before incubation. April 29th.—Two eggs in
tin- -econd nest, detected in a yew tree. May Kith.—The cock bird
observed feeding the five young, newly hatched, on the second nest.
Mav 24th.—The hen Blackbird seen making her third nest in an
apple tree nailed to a wall. May 29th.—Two eggs in the third nest,
and the brood leave the second nest and perch on the trees. June
10th.—The third nest forsaken; of the eggs, which were five in number,
BLACKBIRD. SI
two remain in the nest, part of the others on the ground below the
nest, and part of them found on a wall some twenty yards from it.
June 14th.—The Blackbird's fourth nest begun in a birch hedge.
June 23rd.—Of the five eggs laid in the fourth nest only two
remain: another found on the ground below it: it seems to have bceu
pillaged by some bird in the same way as the third nest. June 26th.—
Fifth and last nest of the Blackbird partially formed in a vine, trained
at the end of the house. Thus, he remarks, a single pair of birds had
twenty-five eggs, and reared fourteen young in one season; aud he
adds that the garden and the shrubbery were so small in extent, that
had there been more than one pair, they would have at once been
detected, aud that such were frequently looked for, but in vain; as
also that the dates of the different stages observed tend to show
that one pair may have constructed and managed the whole nests
with their contents, eggs being never found in more than one nest at
the same time, unless when oue had been forsaken. The following,
if possible still more singular circumstance, is related in the same
magazine, page 3>2, by M l . M. Saul, of Garstang, Lancashire:—'Last
year, a male Blackbird resided in my orchard, and, as it appeared,
failed in finding a mate. As early as February he began building a
nest under some long leaves by the side of a fenny place in the
orchard, having first scratched away a little earth, in order to make
a level place for the nest to stand on. When the nest was finished,
it was completely concealed from the sight and protected from rain,
by the long leaves bending over it; so close was one of the leaves,
that the bird had to lift it up every time he went in or out—a feat
I frequently watched him perform. About two weeks after this nest
was completely finished, the same bird built a second in another part
of the orchard, and in this second nest 1 often saw him sitting later
in the season, and when the leaves were on the trees he built a
nest in a thorn bush. During the time he was engaged with these
three nests, he would frequently perch on one of the highest trees in
the orchard, and scud forth his rich and melodious song, as if to
invite a partner to join iu his family cares, but always without
success.'
Mr. Weir, the valuable correspondent of Mr. Maegillivray, relates a
curious instance of a male Blackbird and a female Thrush, which
being fed together about the conclusion of the winter of the year
1830, within 8 short distance of the house of Mr. Russell, of Mossside,
in Scotland, kept company with each other in the spring, and
eventually hatched four young ones. J. R. Wise, Esq., of Lincoln
College, Oxford, has forwarded to me a specimen of an hybrid egg of
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