4 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



Hist., vol. vii. p. 598) : " "With respect to the Thrush, 

 I recollect a singular case : in the garden of James 

 Hawkin, a nursery-man at Ormskirk in Lancashire, a 

 Thrush and Blackbird had paired : this was well known 

 to a number of individuals, myself among them. 

 During two successive years, the birds reared their 

 broods, which were permitted to fly, and evinced, in all 

 respects, the features of strongly-marked hybrids." In 

 fine weather the Song-Thrush will sing in every month 

 in the year, and Mr. T. Altham, of Clitheroe, thinks that 

 young birds of the year sing quietly in autumn. On 

 the question of autumn-singing, Mr. John Blackwell 

 remarks (" Kesearches in Zoology," p. 53), "several 

 species of birds which cease singing about the latter end 

 of July, or the beginning of August, are sometimes heard 

 again in autumn ; when their songs are generally feeble, 

 imperfect, and of short continuance, like the early efforts 

 of our warblers in spring." The Song-Thrush Isiys four 

 or five eggs and hatches two broods in the season. 

 April and May are the great breeding months, but eggs 

 are often taken in March, and in Eibblesdale these are 

 supposed by the natives to be laid by a different species, 

 which they call the March Throstle. A correspondent 

 writing to the Field of January 29th, 1859, from Liver- 

 pool, says, under date January 26th : "As a proof of 

 the mildness of the season . . a Thrush has a nest 

 in my garden, with one egg, on which she is sitting. 

 During the winter, the Thrushes have sung, and con- 

 tinue to do so almost every day." Terrible havoc was 

 made among them by the winters of 1878, 1879, and 

 1880 (in that of 1878 they left the Eibble valley alto- 

 gether) ; and Mr. C. S. Gregson says {ZooL, 1879) that, 

 on his warren near Formby, in December, Song- 

 Thrushes were in " hundreds — aye, thousands," no 



