MERULIDZE. 63 
stantly returns to the same stone for this purpose; 
but, on the contrary, I imagine it goes to the 
nearest stone well suited to its purpose, for I have 
occasionally found so many of these stones within 
such a very short distance of each other that they 
must have exceeded the number of Thrushes in 
the locality. On one occasion, for instance, in the 
island of Herm, near Guernsey, where the number 
of Thrushes is limited, I found within a very short 
distance such an immense number of stones that 
had been used for this purpose, that I am sure each 
bird, as he caught a snail, must have rushed to the 
nearest stone to break it. In this dry summer 
(1868) the number of snails destroyed by this 
bird and the Blackbird has been perfectly ineal- 
culable. 
Various sorts of berries and (in the summer) fruit 
form part of the food of the Thrush, from which 
latter circumstance arises the enmity of the gar- 
dener, who seldom gives credit for the number of 
snails which fall victims to the Thrush, and the 
amount of damage the snails would have done to 
his garden without this useful ally. Whenever I 
have mentioned this to any gardener, the answer 
always is, “It would be much better to kill the 
Thrushes and pay” (which means let his master 
pay) “boys to pick off the snails.” Which would be 
most profitable to the master, I leave the reader to 
judge. 
GR 
