92 MERULID^. 



the mother bird that she has been kuown to suffer herself 

 to be carried away sitting on her eggs, and to die of starva- 

 tion. Surely a bird so beautiful and so melodious, so 

 skilful an architect and so tender a nurse, deserves rather 

 to be encouraged than exterminated. Yet of two well 

 authenticated instances on record of its nest being found 

 in Britain — one, in Suffolk, was taken with the eggs ; the 

 other, in Kent, was also taken after the eggs were hatched : 

 "the young ones," we are told, "were taken every care 

 of, but did not long survive their captivity." It is not 

 until the end of the third moult that the Oriole appears in 

 his full blaze of gold and black. The plumage of the 

 female bird differs considerably from that of the male in 

 richness of tint, and the young of both sexes resemble the 

 female. 



THE EOCK THRUSH. 



PETROCINCLA SAXATILIS. 



Head, neck, and upper part of the back bluish grey ; scapulars brown ; lower 

 part of the back wliite varied with a few greyish feathers ; tail chestnut brown, 

 the two central feathers darker ; wings dark brown ; greater wing-coverts and 

 secondaries tipped with white ; under plumage light chestnut brown. Length 

 seven inches and a half. 



But tAvo specimens of this bird are known to have been 

 seen in Britain. It inhabits high rocky mountains in 

 Switzerland, Hungary, Turkey, and the three great moun- 

 tain ranges of the Continent, feeding on beetles and 

 grasshoppers, and building its nest of moss in the clefts 

 of rocks or among loose stones. 



