on Tcmminck's Whistling Thrush. 197


Thrushes, at the bottom of the sea. But my great pleasure at

receiving them safely after two days and one night’s journey,

seemed to compensate the bearer for any trouble he had in

conveying them.


Mr. Phillipps had had them a very short time in his care,

and had not had much opportunity for knowing them at all

intimately, and he wrote to me to say that the bird he considered

the male was less shy than the other (whose sex he was doubtful

about), but that the other was terribly timid, and he advised me

to give it some nook into or behind which it could shelter.

Then, too, this one had fits, whilst the other was by no means in

robust health ; indeed both birds were in a precarious condition

when received by Mr. Phillipps. Whether it was the beautiful

climate of the Italian Riviera, or what, I can’t say. That

certainly would very easily account for the rapid recovery to

robust health which both of the Blue Whistling Thrushes under¬

went, but did it also account for their change of demeanour?

Mr. Phillipps had warned me not to handle them if I could

help it, but if there is a thing I do dislike to see, it is a bird

that ought to be very handsome, which is rendered the reverse

by a half-inch of broken stumps instead of a tail, so that I

couldn’t resist removing these stumps from the bird that was

very evidently a male, at the risk of rendering him more timid

than he was already said to be.


On the following day he very much enjoyed a bath in the

sunshine of an Italian day in early Autumn, and from his whole

demeanour I began to think that he must be like some people

who conceal their natural shyness under a bold manner. Two

days after they arrived, I went so far as to venture to let

“ Tommy ” (the one whom I had welcomed by tweaking out his

apology for a tail) come out of his cage in the dining room, so

at home did he seem. Certainly I expected he would probably

dash wildly about when once he found he was out of his cage:

instead of which he hopped about the floor as if he had been

there all his life. A small piece of Gruyere cheese was thrown

to him, which he at once swallowed. After lunch his protector

(on his journey out) sat down on a sofa and placed a piece of



