154 Some Colony Birds. 



the same vigour and variety. We have been listening to 

 the song of the common colony Thrush {Meriila alb Ive titer), 

 a welcome though poor substitute for our own king of song. 



After the kiskadee, no bird is so much in evidence 

 as the Thrush. He may be seen on our lawn pulling worms, 

 or flying low from tree to tree uttering a low-toned note of 

 .alarm, something like our English Black-bird: ''Whafs fids? 

 What, what, what, whafs that? Cher, cher, cJier, cher.'" 



In many respects, indeed, it is nearer the Black-bird 

 than the English Thrush despite its colour. It is slightly 

 larger, being seven or eight inches in length and is a little 

 fuller in body. It is the plainest of plain birds, the prevail- 

 ing colour being earthy brown, inclined to red -on back and 

 wings, greyish on the breast, and fading into white on the 

 vent; hence its ungainly scientific name " White-vented- 

 Thrush." The throat is white with downward streaks of 

 brown; the under-wing coverts are light russet-red; the iris 

 of the large, prominent eye, is reddish brown. The sexes 

 are alike. Young Thrushes have spots of darker colour upon 

 their breast, which fade away when they approach maturity. 

 Hence perhaps has arisen the deeply-rooted conviction that 

 the colony Thrush is descended from English parents im- 

 ported into the colony some fifty years ago. This, perbaps, 

 and the fact that there is nothing peculiarly tropical about 

 albiventer . Like ouir English Kingfisher, it seems to have 

 strayed out of its proper lattitude. 



This colony Thrush is semi-domesticated, frequenting 

 our gardens and building its conspicuous nest in accessible 

 places, such for instance as the top of the pillars that support 

 •our dwellings in this mosquito zone. The nest is like that of 

 our Blackbird, though not so neatly made, and the eggs, two 

 in number, are hardly distinguishable from the same black 

 relative. No one seems to keep the Thrush in a cage. I 

 have a pair which. I reared from the nest; but they are not 

 tame now, dashing about the cage like mad-caps when 1 ap- 

 proach; and, screaming at the top of their voices, ihey peck, 

 fight and struggle when 1 Uake them in my iiand. But they 

 feed well and are healthy. I had hoped better things and 

 more intelligence from them, for when they were barely 



