THE BLACKBIRD.
[_]
Those who are apt to awake early on spring mornings, in
rural neighbourhoods, must often have been charmed with
the solitary song of the Blackbird, when all beside is still,
and the Lark himself is yet on the ground. At evening,
too, his broad and homely strain, different from that of
every other, and chiming in at intervals with the universal
chorus of wild throats, is known from infancy by all who
have been accustomed to walk abroad in the hour of twilight.
The yellow bill and glossy plumage of the same
conspicuous bird, when he flits from hedge to tree, or across
a meadow, are equally familiar to the eye of such; nor less
to their ear is the chuckling note with which he bolts out
of a bush before the startled passenger, who has unconsciously
disturbed him from his perch.
Askern, near Doncaster, 1835.
