specimen, however, in the Museum collection, obtained by Mr. Barody on Mount Lebanon, is more
rufous. I f the Palestine bird should ultimately prove to belong to a district, it will have to bear the
name of Merula syriaca (H. & E.).
Mr. E. Cavendish Taylor has recorded a specimen of the Blackbird from Alexandria (Ibis, 1891,
p. 474).
A female specimen obtained by Fraser in Tunis is of the same grey type as the Palestine bird, as
is also another female in Mr. Whitaker’s collection : the latter specimen is remarkable for its bright
yellow bill. Mr. Whitaker (Ibis, 1894, p. 86) says that he found the Blackbird common in the
wooded districts north of Feriana, but south of this town he does not remember to have met with it.
In Algeria it is also plentiful, and in the province of Constantine it it far more abundant than the
Song-Thrush, according to Mr. Dixon, who noticed it from the coast southwards, even to the oases
of El Kantara and Biskra (Ibis, 1882, p. 568). In Marocco it was found everywhere common by
Capt. Savile Beid (Ibis, 1885, p. 242). Favier says that it is resident near Tangier and very plentiful,
nesting three times in the year (Irby, Orn. Gibr. p. 35). In the Canary Islands, writes Mr. Meade-
Waldo, it is an abundant resident and breeds, while a good number of migrants also arrive (Ibis,
1889, p. 2, 1893, p. 187). The Hon. Cecil Baring and Mr. Ogilvie Grant also brought a good series
of specimens from Madeira, where they procured the species up to 5000 feet. I can perceive no
differences between the Blackbirds of Madeira and the Canaries and those from other parts of Western
Europe, and specimens from the Azores seem to me to be true M. merula. In the latter group
Mr, F. D. Godman met with the species on Fayal in February, on St. Michael’s in March, and on
Flores in May.
The following account of the habits of the Blackbird is extracted from Seebohm’s ‘ History of
British Birds ’ :—
“ The Blackbird is shy and wary ; and his haunts are chosen in situations well adapted to afford
him concealment and seclusion. He inhabits the woodlands, plantations, dense hedgerows, gardens,
and orchards ; but perhaps the places he favours most are the shrubberies and thickets of evergreens.
Here, where the laurels, the yews, and the hollies spread their glossy branches, and the ivy festoons
almost every forest-tree, the Blackbird is found in greatest abundance, more especially so should
lawns or pasture-fields adjoin them. The Blackbird also loves the fences in the fields in summer, where
the vegetation is thick and close, and more particularly so if small streams of water wander beside
them. The briars and the brambles growing most luxuriantly over the hazel-bushes, with here and
there a guelder rose or blackthorn bush, afford a friendly shelter ; and the banks clothed densely
with herbage, wild hyacinths, primroses, anemones, and fern-tufts afford a fitting site for his nest.
B u tin winter, when these situations lose their verdure, the Blackbird quits them for the seclusion
and warmth of the evergreens in the shrubberies and gardens. In spare numbers the Blackbird also
frequents the upland districts on those broken tracts of country which occur between the cultiyated
ground and the moors. Here he frequents the dense thickets of thorn and bramble by the side of
the little streams, or, further in the open, the tall holly bushes and gorse clumps occasionally intermingled
with a birch or mountain-ash. Wherever the upland farmhouses nestle amongst clumps of
trees and are surrounded with a partially neglected garden or orchard, the Blackbird will also be
found. In fact he follows man to the wilds as long as sufficient vegetation exists to afford him the
.séclusion which he loves.
“ The Blackbird is especially fond of swampy places and the neighbourhood of water. Wherever
streams with well-wooded banks occur, there just as surely Blackbirds will be found ; and in the little
swampy corners of woods and shrubberies they congregate, sometimes half a dozen birds taking wing
together at your approach. Yet the Blackbird is not gregarious ; and its presence here in company
with its kindred is explained by a common purpose, the search for the food the swamps contain ;
and each bird flits off solitary as it came.
Most birds become more or less vociferous at the approach of night, and the Blackbird
particularly so. As you wander through the shrubberies in the evening you will often hear a
rustling noise amongst the withered leaves under the shrubs and plants. A rustle and then a pause,
another more hasty movement, and at last a Blackbird dashes rapidly out, and, uttering his loud
harsh cry of alarm, flits off in unsteady flight and hastily disappears again in the nearest cover. As
the darkness deepens you have good opportunity of watching their actions when retiring to rest.
Conceal yourself under the spreading branches of a dark gloomy yew tree and wait patiently ; you
will hear their loud cries in all directions, and catch occasional glimpses of their dark forms flitting
hither and thither in the gloom: pinJc-pinlc-pinJc, tac-tac-tac, is heard on every side. Now a bird
comes fluttering into the bush under which you are concealed, and his notes startle you by their
nearness. A short distance away another answers: another and another in different directions also
swells.the noisy clamour; and you hear on every side their fluttering wings amongst the evergreens
around you. As night comes on and all objects lose outline and distinctness, the cries cease and the
birds settle down to rest. A solitary bird will, perhaps, dash past just fresh from the pasture-lands
outside; or a frightened bird will utter his alarm-note as he shifts his quarters ; yet all else is now
silent, save-indeed the few last evening notes of the Bobin, or, perhaps, the purr of the Goatsucker.
“ The Blackbird is with difficulty flushed. I t is a skulking bird, and prefers to hop quickly
under the hedgerows and brushwood rather than take wing, its motions partaking more of those of a
mouse or a rat than of a bird. When compelled to take wing, its flight for a short distance is
remarkably unsteady. Turning and twisting from side to side, it dashes quickly away, and, as a rule,
just as suddenly and unexpectedly alights in the nearest cover. Across an open place, however, the
Blackbird flies quite steadily, and his motion through the air is rapid. Barely, indeed, does the
bird fly at any great height; and should he be compelled to fly far, he seems to prefer skulking along
the hedgerows or close to the ground from bush to bush rather than expose himself to view. In the
pine-forests at Arcachon, where both the Blackbird and the Song-Thrush winter in some numbers, it
was especially noticeable that, whilst the latter were generally seen in the loftiest pines, the former
were exclusively found in the underwood, which there consists of furze, broom, and heath, the latter
frequently attaining a height of from six to ten feet. As a rule, Blackbirds are extremely sedentary
birds; rarely make excursions to any distance, and for weeks, nay, whole seasons,, regularly frequent
one locality. The Blackbird’s flights are almost entirely restricted to those taken from or to its
feeding-grounds, should they not be immediately adjoining its haunts. From the shrubberies to the
gardens it regularly passes, especially in the early morning and in the dusk of the evening; yet
the bird is apparently always in a hurry, and anxious to reach the shelter and seclusion of its haunt
as soon as possible.
“ There is no reason to think that the Blackbird is migratory in the British Islands. Many birds
shift their quarters, either from the colder districts and those parts of the uplands which they haunt
in summer, or they quit the open fields when the hedgerows are rendered bare by the wintry blasts ;
but the bird is not a migrant in the accepted meaning of the word. In severe winters, however, the
numbers of our resident birds are perceptibly increased by birds from the continent driven south by
stress of weather. On Heligoland, that interesting little island, of all other places the best for
observing the annual movements of the bird world, the Blackbird is regularly obtained on spring and
autumn migration, clearly demonstrating the fact that the species is, at all events, a migratory one in
the northern portions of its range.
Morning and evening are the times when the BJackbird usually seeks his food; and then you
can study its graceful attitudes and sprightly bearing to perfection. In spring and summer it is, for
the most part, obtained from the grass-lands—the lawns and pastures near its haunts. At the
morning s dawn, or when the sun is well down in the west, you can observe them with ease. One by
one you can see them fly rapidly out of the dense shrubbery or wood and alight amongst the grass.