cannot be described as lively, for, like most thrushes, they prefer 

 to perch statue-like in one position almost all day long. On 

 August ioth I was surprised to see the hen busily building a nest 

 on the top of a Hartz cage under the sheltered portion of the 

 aviary. The site was about eighteen inches from the untidy nest 

 of a pair of Yellow Sparrows, and I was obliged to clip all the 

 loose ends of hay from the sparrow's nest, which the thrush was 

 using as material for her own, to the great indignation of the two 

 sparrows. The next day saw her still steadily building, but she 

 was very independent and did not consult her husband. They 

 were not even on speaking terms with each other, and snapped 

 their bills whenever the distance between them became less 

 than a yard. 



It was very amusing to see the hen at work : she collected 

 a small bundle of short lengths of hay, dipped them first into the 

 drinking water, and then into a small dish of mud which I had 

 put down for her benefit. This performance was gone through 

 several times before she was satisfied that the hay was wet and 

 muddy enough. Owing to her wings being clipped she had great 

 difficulty in reaching the nest, which was in the very highest 

 part of the shelter, and until I arranged a series of easy stages to 

 the nest, she often made five or six futile attempts to reach it. 

 After each failure to reach the nest she invariably returned to 

 the water dish again, and went through the whole process with 

 the hay. 



Before I put in the mud, she was taking small pieces of 

 earth in her bill to the water, no doubt with the idea of making 

 her own mud, but the earth fell to pieces as soon as it touched 

 the water. As a consequence the only result was muddy water, 

 which had to be changed several times a day. 



She did not work continuously at the nest, but made two 

 or three journeys at a time, and then enjoyed a good long rest. 

 I could still see through the bottom of the nest on August 17th, 

 but on the 19th it appeared to be completed, also, this was the 

 first morning that the drinking water was not muddy. 



During all this time the cock had not taken the slightest 

 interest in the hen or her work, except when she went a little too 

 near when, as she was clearly master of the situation, he would 



