This species is common in gardens, orchards, shrubberies, hedgerows, and woods all over the British Islands. I have even met with it breeding in a little garden close to the Atlantic in the outermost island of the Hebridean group and within sight of lone St. Kilda.
BLACKBIRD’S NEST.
Its nest is placed in isolated thorn bushes, evergreens of all kinds, hedges, in trees sometimes at a considerable elevation, in holes in dry stone walls, in sheds, and even amongst grass upon the level ground. Last spring I saw two in the grass, one inside a thrashing machine, and another joined to the nest of a Song Thrush on a wooden bar inside a cattle shed, and all of them were within a few yards of suitable hedgerows. The structure is composed of small dead twigs, roots, dry grass, and moss intermixed with clay or mud, and lined with fine, dry grass.
The eggs, numbering from four to six, are of a dull bluish-green, spotted and blotched with reddish-brown and grey. Occasionally specimens may be met with having a few hair-like lines on the larger end. The eggs vary considerably in regard to size, shape, and coloration.
Blackbirds breed from March until June, July, and even August, and have been known to rear as many as four broods in a single season. Young birds of the first brood sometimes help their parents to feed the chicks of a second family.
The glory of an Ouzel’s song consists not so much in its variety and compass as in the rich, flute-like melodiousness of its tones and the easy, leisurely manner of their delivery. They are readily distinguished from the hurried, vehement, hope-inspiring notes of the Song Thrush by their mellowness, stately delivery, and touch of melancholy.
FEMALE BLACKBIRD ADMIRING
HER SINGLE GIANT CHICK
Blackbirds sing principally during the morning and evening, but as a rule do not commence quite as early or go on so late as Throstles. A warm spring shower will, however, always draw the best and sweetest music from the Merle at whatever hour of the day it may fall. This species loves to sing from a dead, bare bough, standing well above the surrounding foliage, but occasionally holds forth on the wing, and I have heard one sing habitually from a housetop in the Outer Hebrides.