C.C. NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 49 



NOTES ON BIRDS. 



By J. H. Cardew. 



THE SONG THRUSH. 



THE Song Thrush is not only one of the prettiest birds we 

 have in our neighbourhood, but it is also one of the best 

 songsters. It can frequently be seen in the early morning 

 perched on the branch of a tree singing away merrily, ihe 

 bird is of a grey-brown colour, with a white breast marked with 

 brown spots, reminding one of an ermine's skin. A thrush s eggs are 

 rarely found before April ; they are bright blue, usually speckled with 

 black spots, though sometimes the spots are of a red-brown colour. 

 Th markings Jy very much, and I have seen a thrush's egg as 

 clear of spots as a starling's. The nest is of dry grass with a few 

 Straws and sticks, and the inside is thickly lined with day, w.h which 

 I have found chips of wood mixed on one occasion. This c ay mu t 

 be Quite watertight as I have found pools of water m thrushs nests 

 Lnf ter a y rfm has fallen. On April xst 1 found a thrush's nest 

 on Ba^tledown. It was made of dry grass and lined with clay and 

 had four small, badly marked eggs in it. The nest was in a hawthorn 

 bush, about four feet from the ground. I have also found nests of 

 tWs Lird in an apple tree where two branches met, and in ivy which 

 was climbing up a tree ; but they are generally found in hedges. 



THE MISSEL THRUSH. 

 THE Missel Thrush is a fairly large bird having a peculiarly 

 wild harsh cry. It is very shy except during the breeding season 

 when it nests close to a house. Though sometimes ragged its nest 

 Ts usually very neat, being made of sticks, moss and straw, cement d 

 together'with'a little mud and lined with dry grass, it is genera^b^ 

 plLd in the fork of two or more branches in vanous kind of trees 

 at a height of ten to twenty feet from the ground. The eggs, which 

 latirnumber five or sixf are very pale green with reddish brown 

 spots all over them. 



