THRICECOCK— THRUSH 959 



citing a specimen of M. carolinejisis with a leg as much "booted" as in 

 the true Thrushes, while in a species of Mimocichla, the di\dsions of 

 the scutellse are appreciable though they are all fused into one plate.^ 



THRICECOCK, a local name for the Mistletoe-THRUSH. 



THROSTLE (A.-S. ])rosle), now nearly obsolete, apparently the 

 diminutive foim of 



THRUSH (A.-S. ])rysce, Icel. ]>rdstr, Norw. Tmst, 0. H. Germ. 

 Drosce, Mod. Germ. Drossel),- the name that in England seems to 

 have been common to two species of birds, the first now generally 

 distinguished as the Song-Thrush, but known in many districts as 

 the Mavis, ^ the second the Mistletoe-Thrush, but having many 

 other local designations, of Avhich more presently. 



The former of these is one of the finest songsters in Europe, 

 but it is almost everywhere so common that its merits in this 

 respect are often disregarded, and not unfrequently its melody, 

 when noticed, is ascribed to the prince of feathered vocalists, the 

 Nightingale (p. 635). The Song-Thrush is too well known to 

 need description, for in the spring and summer there is hardly a 

 field, a copse or a garden that is not the resort of a pair or more ; 

 and the brown-backed bird with its spotted breast, hopping over the 

 grass for a few yards, then pausing to detect the movement of a 

 worm, and vigorously seizing the same a moment after, is one of 

 the most familiar sights. Hardly less well known is the singular 

 nest built by this bird — a deep cup, lined with a thin but stiff coat- 

 ing of fragments of rotten wood ingeniously spread, and plastered 

 so as to present a smooth interior — in which its sea-green eggs 

 spotted Avith black are laid. An early breeder, it builds nest after 

 nest during the season, and there can be few birds more prolific. 

 Its ravages on ripening fruits, especially strawberries and goose- 

 berries, excite the enmity of the imprudent gardener who leaves 

 his crops unprotected by nets, but he would do well to stay the 

 hand of revenge, for no bird can or does destroy so many snails, as 

 is testified to the curious observer on inspection of the stones that 

 it selects against which to dash its captures, — stones that are be- 

 smeared with the slime of the victims and bestrewn with the frag- 

 ments of their shattered shells. Nearly all the young Thrushes 

 reared in the British Islands — and this expression includes the 



^ I have no experience of Harporhynchus, but close to it is usually placed the 

 Antillean genus 3Iargarops of Mr. Sclater, and no one who has made its acquaint- 

 ance in life can doubt that form beinic a true Thrush. 



■^ For many interesting facts connected with the words "Thrush" and 

 "Throstle" which cannot be entered upon here, the reader should consult Prof. 

 Skeat's Etymological Dictionary. 



^ Its diminutive is Mauviette, the modern table-name of the Skylark, and 

 perhaps Mavis was in English originally the table-name of the Thrush. 



