54 



WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



SONG THRUSH S NEST WITHOUT MUD LINING. 



back and brood after you have inadvertently 

 trodden her tail quills out and smashed half her 

 treasures. 



You may find a thousand nests belonging to 

 the common song thrush all j)lastered with mud 

 in the same orthodox fashion, but you cannot 

 say that circumstances will not one day compel 

 a member of the species to build for herself a 

 home similar in every respect to that of her 

 relative the blackbird. As a matter of fact I 

 found three or four such nests some years ago on 

 the Surrey hills. A long period of droughty 

 weather had rendered it impossible for any 

 mavis breeding within a certain area to fmd the 

 usual materials wherewith to line the interior of 



