134 TURDUS MUSICUS. 



them in its bill, and knocking them repeatedly against a stone. 

 Large heaps of the shells thus broken may be seen by garden 

 walls, and in pastures on the edges of thickets. In the He- 

 brides, where it frequents the shores in winter, it treats the 

 Turbo littoreus and Trochus conuloides in the same manner ; 

 and of these shells the fragments may often be found under 

 shelter of some stone or slab, to which the bird flies with its 

 prey. Many years ago, having in the course of my littoral 

 rambles in Harris, frequently heard a sharp sound like that of 

 a small stone struck upon another, I endeavoured to discover its 

 cause ; but for a long time in vain, until at length, being one 

 day in search of birds, when the tide was out, I heard the well 

 known chink, and standing still discovered at a distance, in a 

 recess formed by two flat stones at the upper part of the shore, 

 a bird moving its head and body alternately upwards and down- 

 wards, each downward motion being followed by the noise 

 which had hitherto been so mysterious. Running up to the 

 place, I found a Thrush, which flying off", left a welk newly 

 broken, but with the animal in it, lying amidst a heap of frag- 

 ments around a smooth stone. Having some years after men- 

 tioned the circumstance to a scientific friend in Edinburgh, I 

 was favoured with an assurance of the utter impracticability of 

 the feat, which indeed is at first mention not very credible, 

 although one may easily satisfy himself that a welk, thick as 

 it is, is very easily broken by knocking it smartly against a 

 hard body. 



In the plains Thrushes are sometimes met with in consider- 

 able numbers in winter, and during snow betake themselves, 

 along with the Fieldfares and Redwings, to wet meadows ; 

 but the species is not strictly gregarious at that season. It is 

 always more easily procurable than any other species of the 

 genus, it being almost as familiar in winter as the Robin. 

 Happening on the 12th March 1837, when there was snow on 

 the ground, to meet with a Thrush searching for food along a 

 wall, the base of which was clear, I followed it slowly over a 

 space of about two hundred yards, without its seeming in the 

 least alarmed, for it allowed me at times to approach within 

 six paces. On this occasion, and on others, I have observed 



