Brave Parents It has been queried why blackbirds are more
numerous than thrushes, and have become almost, if not quite, the commonest of our birds. There are many reasons which help to make them successful " struggle-for- lifers." One is illustrated ty an August experience in Kensington. One young bird, brought up in an ampelopsis creeper on one house, left the nest prematurely and planed down into the neighbouring garden. After being rescued from a cat, it was put into an openwork basket, covered, but leaving a cat-proof aperture. The fond parents found it at once and are feeding it. It is, of course, very late in the year for young blackbirds to be hatched ; but three broods are, I think, tolerably common, commoner, perhaps, than with any other bird. The birds are not only more than usually philoprogenitive, they are more than usually courageous. One cock-bird actually landed on the back of a cat that approached the nest, and clung there, pecking the cat for some considerable distance, including the passage of a privet hedge. Partridges are perhaps yet more courageous, and will persistently attack a carrion crow which approaches their brood. I have seen a hedge-sparrow attack an adder, and in general the parent bird acquires surprising bravery, but the blackbird is certainly among the protagonists:
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