TURDUS MERULA.

Syst. Nat.-295.

THE BLACKBIRD, OR OUZEL.

PLATE VII.

THE bill is an inch long, in the cock of a fine bright gold colour, in the hen dusky towards the point, yellow towards the base. The inside of the mouth is yellow, the eyes are brown and very bright, the circle round them yellow. The whole plumage of the cock, in old birds, is an intense steady black without glossiness. The hen is of a dusky black, inclining to brown; the throat and upper part of the breast excepted, which are of a dull dirty white spotted with black.

The wing is composed of eighteen feathers, of which the second order of quills are remarkably large and broad. The tail consists of twelve feathers, and when displayed is fan-shaped, the outer feathers being shorter than the middle ones. The legs and feet are black, or of a very dark horn colour.

The ouzel is a solitary bird, accompanying with his mate only in breeding time. He inhabits solitary and rocky woods near rivulets; and when surprised in his lonely haunts, flies from the presence of the intruder with an hideous loud scream. Their food is insects and berries, and they seem to delight most in the hawthorn*. The attitudes of the cock are bold and majestic, particularly when he feeds. Stooping, displaying his tail, turning his head, and casting his eyes on every side as if to avoid a foe.

The blackbird is one of the first to proclaim the welcome spring by his shrill melodious notes, as if he were the harbinger of nature, to awaken the rest of the feathered tribes, by the sweet modulation of his tuneful accents, to prepare for the pleasures of the approaching season, even before the

• Crataegus oxycanthy.

leaves appear upon the trees, and while the frosts are yet in the fields. He begins to sing about the middle of January, according to Mr. White, and continues his music till his moulting time, at the end of summer, and resumes it in September, continuing it through the first winter months. The note of the male bird is extremely fine, but too loud for any place except the woods. That of the female is so very different, that it has sometimes been mistaken for the voice of a bird of another species.

Blackbirds are restless and timorous, easily alarmed, and difficult of access; but Buffon observes that they are more restless than cunning, and more timorous than suspicious, as they readily suffer themselves to be taken by all sorts of devices.

These birds are subject to much variety, being sometimes white, and occasionally pied in different degrees.

Like the thrushes, they destroy great numbers of insects in the fields and gardens, and thereby amply repay us for the fruit with which they make free. They are said to be found dead frequently in very cold weather, which is not the case with other birds, for if they die, they are seldom found.

In confinement blackbirds are familiar, and may be taught to whistle tunes, and to imitate the human voice, but they are never kept in aviaries: for, when shut up with other birds, they incessantly pursue and harrass their companions in slavery.

The blackbird is an inhabitant of England through the whole year, and remains also in Italy. In the southern part of Spain it is said alternately to visit Barbary, and to be numerous in both places.