'PEATHEBRD RESIDENTS IN THE GROUNDS OF TERRICK HOUSE. 221 



the severity of most of our winters, nor does it, so far as my observations 

 go, seek the shelter of hay-rick or thatch, in which to pass the nights, as 

 does the Common Wren; those same evergreens which furnished it with a 

 supply of food throughout the day, no doubt affording it sufficient protection 

 from cold during the night. That these birds find an adequate supply of 

 minute insects, even during a severe frost, I have had satisfactory evidence, 

 for in the depth of a rather long continued one, a specimen was caught and 

 killed by a cat, which on examination I found to be in the best possible 

 condition; its gizzard was completely stuifed with small flies, etc. 



The hill sides around are studded with that neat-looking, but sombre-tinted 

 evergreen, the common juniper, while hanging woods of box of considerable 

 extent are here and there to be seen, which not only contrast finely, in winter, 

 with the gray, cold beech woods with which these hills (the Chilterns) are 

 likewise clothed, thus relieving in a charming manner the dreariness of a 

 wintry scene, but are also valuable in affording shelter and protection to the 

 feathered tribes. Here as winter approaches a large addition to the number 

 of Goldcrests, permanently resident, takes place, those which had been reared 

 in more exposed situations being driven to seek the shelter these woods 

 offer them. 



The Song Thrush, (Tardus mtisictis,) has a nest between the forks of this 

 tree; the lining of this nest is of a most peculiar kind, widely different from 

 that of any other British Bird's nest. Most birds choose materials for the 

 purpose more or less soft, warm, and yielding; but the bird before us disdains 

 to allow itself, or to bring up its offspring, in the indulgence of any such 

 luxuries; the inside of the nest being coated over with a kind of adhesive 

 cement or plaster, of the composition of which nothing very satisfactory seems 

 to be known. One ingredient, however, appears to be that light, decayed 

 wood, known as touchwood; what else there may be, or what kind of fluid 

 the bird may employ for mixing the ingredients together, is not so apparent: 

 whatever the mixture, it forms, when dry, a cement hard, firm, and durable, 

 though extremely light. The eggs, five in number, are of a beautiful blue, 

 with black or purplish spots, I have some of a uniform blue, without spot 

 or stain of any description; these are of a darker hue than usual, as though 

 the blaclj or purple colour, which in ordinary cases exhibits itself in distinct 

 spots, were in these particular instances mixed up and blended with the 

 ground colour. I have found the nest of this species with eggs as early as 

 the month of February, and I have known of a nest with young ones as 

 late as the first week in September; it would therefore seem to breed more 

 than once or twice in the course of a season. The early nests are generally 

 placed among ivy; in a spruce fir tree, or evergreen shrub; in the side of 

 a bean rick, or faggot stack; on the side plate in a cart hovel, or any 

 open shed; and especially among the brushwood which is cut and laid in 

 drifts by the woodman, previously to its being made into fiiggots. As the 

 season advances, and the opening buds expand, places of concealment are no 



