NEST AND EGGS OF THE BLACKBIRD.

PLATE VIII.

THE blackbird breeds in solitary places, and conceals her nest very artfully in the bottom of some close bush near the ground.

The outside is composed of various kinds of moss, which is wove and platted together with blades of grass, dried leaves, &c. These are brought in plenty, and firmly bound together. Upon this is a coat of plaster, composed of a mixture of clay and cow's dung, well wrought and tempered together; and over this a soft covering of the dried blades of hair grass, which is neatly wove and platted together in the bottom and sides of the cavity, as well as upon the brim of the nest.

They generally lay four eggs of a dusky blue green, with numerous small points of a darker colour.

The blackbird sits concealed while he sings. In breeding time, his whistle is so loud and shrill as to make the dales re-echo. When two are singing at the same time within hearing of each other, they will contend in song like the nightingale, each keeping silence alternately till the other has repeated his song.

Blackbirds, as well as other birds of the thrush kind, when taken in traps, or otherwise, are easily reclaimed by being put in large cages with

tame birds of the same species, placing, for a few days, haws, hips, worms, &c. in the cage, still giving him fewer and fewer every day, and in the space of a fortnight he will wean himself and take the tame birds' food.

The nests of blackbirds and thrushes are frequently robbed by magpies, which sometimes destroy the old birds also, and this in some measure causes their scarcity. A blackbird built its nest twice at the bottom of a hedge, and both times had its young destroyed by cats; it built again a third time, and placed its nest in an apple tree, eight feet from the ground.