THE SONG THRUSH. 3 



in Marmion, alludes to the earliness of its song when he 



says — 



To dear Saint Valentine no Thmsh 

 Sings livelier from a spring-tide bush ; 



and Grahame, in his Birds of Scotland, has given us some 

 beautiful lines on the variety and mellowness of its notes — 



The Thrush's song 

 Is varied as his plumes ; and as his plumes 

 Blend beauteous, each with each, so run his notes 

 Smoothly, with many a happy rise and fall. 



So loud and soft, 



And high and low, all in his notes combine. 

 In alternation sweet, to charm the ear. 

 FuU earlier than the blackbird he begins 

 His vernal strain. 



This species does not usually congregate in flocks like 

 the Missel Thrush, Fieldfare, and Redwing, but is gene- 

 rally found scattered all over our district, in gardens, 

 shrubberies, woods, and deans. Small flocks have, however, 

 sometimes been observed in the uplands towards the end 

 of autumn.^ It is to a great extent migratory in Ber- 

 wickshire ; but sufficient numbers of our home-bred birds 

 remain in the county all the year round, in ordinary 

 seasons, to cause a general belief that it is a permanent 

 resident. It is regularly seen in large flocks in autumn, 

 while on migration from the north of Europe, passing the 

 lighthouses on the coasts of England and Scotland, including 

 those at the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth, and the Fame 

 Islands on the coast of Northumberland. On its return 

 journey to the north in spring, it is again observed at the 

 lighthouses above mentioned, but in fewer numbers ; ^ and in 



1 Mr. Hardy, writing in 1875, says:— "At Oldcambus, Berwickshire, on Dec. 

 2nd, the local Thrushes, during a frost, formed a small scattered flock in a field 

 near a plantation. In former seasons I have frequently observed, at the close 

 of autumn, Thrushes flying in flocks on the moors above Redheugh. They took 

 refuge at night in the furze bushes." — Hist. Ber. Nat. Club. vol. vii. p. 511. 



^ Mr. John Cordeaux, author of the Birds of the Humber District, and Reporter 

 on the Migration of Birds on the east coast of England, remarks, with regard to 



