When clothed in his fine, jet black and glossy plumage, with his bright yellow bill, this is really a beautiful bird. He is familiar and docile; he can be taught to whistle a tune distinctly and clearly, and there is probably no bird possessed of such melodious and soft flute-like notes as the English Black Bird. I have heard one in a cage, early in the morning, in a large city, whistling "Over the water to Charlie," with great truth and harmony, and so loud as to be heard distinctly half a mile off. If you wish to teach your bird a tune, cover over the cage with a cloth about half an hour before sunset; then go near the cage, and whistle the tune you wish him to learn. Go over it slowly, from beginning to end, then repeat, say a dozen of times, or more. If he is a young bird you may hear him commence it in a few days. Be careful to whistle the tune, and nothing else, and if you whistle to him through the day, let it be the same tune.

Food

My readers will perceive that I recommend meal and milk as a staple diet for all Thrushes, and what is called soft-billed birds; that is, all birds that require soft food. It is because experience has taught me, that it is preferable to any other food which can be given. Bread and milk, and crackers and milk, is the common food of those birds in England, but it is too purgative for birds, as a constant diet. Last summer I had a Black Bird brought to me, which had been four or five weeks imported, and had been fed on bread and milk. It really looked miserable; he was dirty, and his plumage was matted and wet; the cage also was wet, although the person who brought it had taken pretty good care of the bird, and regularly cleaned the cage. I immediately commenced feeding him upon meal and milk. The first day he ate very sparingly of it, and threw a considerable part of it out of the cage; the next day he ate a little more, and threw none of it out; the third day he ate heartily of it, and in three or four days he looked better, and was probably in better health than ever he had been. I had him about three months in my possession, and when he left it there never was a prettier Black Bird in a cage, and he was in full song. His meal and milk, and about twice a week a little beef, prepared as for the Mocking Bird, was all he had. I use the yellow, or northern corn meal, in preference to the white, or southern. Meal and milk, a bit of beef, scraped, once or twice a week, berries in summer, and a bit of ripe apple and a few black currants, occasionally, in winter, are sufficient.

Characteristics Of The Sexes

The male of this bird is easily distinguished from the female. The male is ail black, the bill a bright yellow. The female upper parts are amber brown, throat a dirty white, lower parts yellowish brown, bill brown, tinged with the fine yellow of the male.

Location

Found throughout Britain, and Resident.