276 Wild Birds and their Haunts 



garden or orchard, for man's protection. The foundation 

 of the nest is laid with slender twigs, or stalks of grass, 

 and when the fabric is reared, the outside is patched over 

 with pieces of lichen, apparently generally taken from 

 the tree on which it is built, certainly never of a very 

 opposite character from those which grow around, and 

 thus they serve as an excellent blind against detection. 

 The eggs are from four to six in number, of a green or 

 bluish-white, spotted and blotched with reddi«h-brown. 

 When the duties of incubation are concluded, the broods 

 with the old birds keep together, and towards the com- 

 mencement of winter, sometimes collect in flocks of from 

 twenty to thirty, feeding on the wild berries, which are at 

 this time nearly ripe. They soon, however seem to dis- 

 perse again, and during the whole of the winter may be 

 seen in parties of five or six, or in pairs, feeding some- 

 times on the wild fruits, and at others selecting the low 

 meadows or pasture grounds. They often create havoc 

 among fruit crops ; in winter they select the berries of the 

 holly and yew in preference to those of the hawthorn, or 

 our other native kinds. This thrush remains with us 

 during the year, and one is not aware of any partial 

 migration taking place, or of any accession of numbers, 

 though it is surmised that the colonies of from twenty to 

 thirty more from place to place probably for Commis- 

 sariat. 



These may be certainly parties of the younger birds 

 commencing a migration, for we have hardly an increase 

 to account for all those which are bred in a district ; at 

 the same time, we know that many pairs of old birds 

 remain constantly, and without changing the range to a 

 great distance, and some we have seen, for a year to- 

 gether, every day we remained at home. 



The general colour of the upper plumage is hair brown, 

 varying in intensity, and sometime tinted with yellowish 

 or with oil-green, which prevails on the neck. The outer 

 webs of the quills, coverts and scapulars, are edged with 

 pale wood-brown ; the inner webs umber-brown, tinted 

 with ash-grey ; the tail is chiefly of the latter colour ; the 

 outer feathers tipped with white. The under parts are 



