198 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



performance. Worms, some kinds of slugs, snails and insects 

 are its chief food ; berries are eaten, but are not so eagerly 

 sought for as by many of its congeners. Snail-stones, on which 

 it smashes the shells of its victims, are surrounded by fragments 

 of its feasts ; on the coast a rock is often used, and in Yorkshire 

 the hard stems of the sea-buckthorn ; I have seen these with 

 the bark worn off. The young are largely fed on earth-worms 

 pecked into sections, and long after they leave the nest they 

 call for food with a querulous tcheep. 



The nest may be in almost any situation — in a tree (Plate 81), 

 bush, evergreen, hedge, shed, hole in a wall, on a ledge, bank 

 or the ground The materials used are also varied — grass, 

 leaves, moss, wool, even paper, but the lining is always a plaster 

 of mud, generally mixed with wood-chips, horse-dung or vegetable 

 tissues ; when dry this forms a sohd saucer which often remains 

 long after the outer materials have vanished. Mr. Kirkman 

 reports the entire nest, with the lining added, built by the hen 

 bird alone in twelve hours, and I have known an ^%% to be laid 

 four days after building began. Eggs are usually laid from 

 March onwards, but nests in February or even January are not 

 uncommon. Two or three broods are reared. The sitting 

 birds do not always behave in the same manner ; they usually 

 sit closely, remaining when looked at, with the bill pointed 

 upward and the streaks on either side of the throat showing 

 plainly ; suddenly, however, the bird leaps up and flies off with 

 a loud rattling scream. Others slip quietly from the nest, 

 though they usually remain near, repeating an anxious tchuck. 

 The very blue, black-spotted eggs (Plate 79) are four 

 to five in number. Whether the majority of the birds emigrate 

 in autumn is not certain, but round the larger towns Song- 

 Thrushes remain all winter, though country districts are 

 practically deserted. 



The general colour is olive-brown, with buff tips to the 

 coverts forming an obscure wing-bar ; the under parts are 



