warm April shower. He continues singing at intervals
throughout the summer, and till the regular moulting of the
season commences.
Like some other birds gifted with great powers of voice,
the Blackbird is an imitator of the sounds made by others.
He has been heard to imitate closely part of the song of the
Nightingale; three or four instances are recorded of his
having been known to crow exactly like the Common Cock,
apparently enjoying the sound of the responses made by the
fowls of the neighbouring farm-yard ; and Mr. Neville Wood,
in his British Song Birds, has mentioned an instance in which
he heard a Blackbird cackle as a hen does after laying.
The Blackbird pairs and breeds very early in the spring,
generally choosing the centre of some thick bush in which
to fix and conceal the nest. The outside is formed of coarse
roots and strong bents of grass, plastered over or intermixed
with dirt on the inner surface, forming a stiff wall: it is then
lined with finer bents. The eggs are four or five in number,
sometimes, but rarely, six, of a light blue colour, speckled
and spotted with pale reddish brown : the eggs of the Blackbird
are occasionally found of a uniform blue, without any
spots whatever; the length of the egg one inch two lines,
the breadth ten lines. The first brood of young are hatched
by the end of March, or early in April.
The Blackbird is very generally distributed. It is found
over the whole of the counties of the South of England from
Sussex to Cornwall, it is common in Wales ; and, according
to Mr. Thompson of Belfast, it is very common and constantly
resident in Ireland: it is found also in the northern
counties ; and in Northumberland, Mr. Selby says that
about “ the beginning of November vast flocks of Blackbirds
make their appearance upon our coasts, from more
northern countries. They remain but a few days to recruit,
and then resume their flight in a south-westerly direction.
The Blackbird is also now found over Scotland. Mr.
Selby saw it in Sutherlandshire in June 1834; and it is
recorded as inhabiting the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Shetland.
In Sweden, Professor Nilsson says it is common everywhere
; and Mr. Hewitson and his party saw it occasionally
in Norway. From the northern parts of Europe it is spread
southward over the whole of the European continent to Italy,
and is known to go from thence to North Africa. According
to M. Temminck, the Blackbird also inhabits the Morea;
and Mr. Charles Darwin saw it as far to the westward as
Tercera, one of the Azores.
The beak and the edges of the eyelids in the adult male
are gamboge-yellow : the whole of the plumage black ; under
surface of the wings shining greyish black ; the legs and toes
brownish black ; claws black.
The whole length of the bird about ten inches. The
wing from the carpal joint to the end of the longest primary
four inches and seven-eighths : the first feather very short;
the second not quite so long as the fifth, but longer than the
sixth; the third, fourth, and fifth feathers, equal in length,
and the longest in the wing.
In the female, all the plumage of the upper surface is
uniform umber brown ; the chin, throat, and upper part of
the breast, reddish yellow brown, with a few darker-coloured
spots; belly, sides, and under tail-coverts, hair-brown.
The young have the upper parts blackish brown, darker in
the males, each feather having a central spot or streak of
pale rufous ; under parts light rufous brown, with terminal
dark spots, generally more distinct in the males.
Young males having completed their first autumn moult,
are intermediate in the general colour of their plumage between
that of the adult female and adult male, the yellow
also beginning to appear at the point of the beak.