THE SONG THRUSH 3 



THE SONG THRUSH 



TURDUS MUSICUS 



Upper parts brown tinged with olive ; wing-coverts edged and tipped with 

 reddish yellow ; cere yellowish ; throat white in the middle, without 

 spots ; sides of neck and breast reddish yellow with triangular daik 

 brown spots ; abdomen and flanks pure white with oval dark brown 

 spots ; under wing-coverts pale orange yellow ; bill and feet greyish 

 brown. Length, eight inches and a half, breadth thirteen inches. Eggs 

 blue with a few black spots mostly at the larger end. 



The Thrush holds a distinguished place among British birds, 

 as contributing, perhaps, more than any other to the aggregate 

 charms of a country life. However near it may be, its song is never 

 harsh, and heard at a distance its only defect is, that it is not nearer. 

 It possesses, too, the charm of harmonizing with all other pleasant 

 natural sounds. If to these recommendations we add that the 

 Thrush frequents all parts of England, and resorts to the surburban 

 garden as well as the forest and rocky glen, we think we may 

 justly claim for it the distinction among birds, of being the last 

 that we would willingly part with, not even excepting its allowed 

 master in song himself, the Nightingale. Three notes are often 

 repeated : Did he do it ? Shut the gate, Kubelik. 



The food of the Thrush during winter consists of worms, insects, 

 and snails. The first of these it picks up or draws out from 

 their holes, in meadows and lawns ; the others it hunts for among 

 moss and stones, in woods and hedges, swallowing the smaller ones 

 whole, and extracting the edible parts of large snails by dashing 

 them with much adroitness against a stone. When it has once dis- 

 covered a stone adapted to its purpose, it returns to it again and 

 again, so that it is not uncommon in one's winter walks to come 

 upon a place thickly strewn with broken shells, all, most probably, 

 the ' chips ' of one workman. As spring advances, it adds 

 caterpillars to its bill of fare, and as the summer fruits ripen, it 

 attacks them all in succession ; strawberries, gooseberries, cur- 

 rants, raspberries, cherries, and, on the Continent, grapes suit 

 its palate right well ; and, when these are gone, pears and apples, 

 whether attached to the tree or lying on the ground, bear, too often 

 for the gardener, the marks of its beak on their ripest side. Dur- 

 ing all this period it relieves the monotony of its diet by an occa- 

 sional repast on animal food ; as, indeed, in winter it alternates 

 its food whenever opportunity occurs, by regaling itself on wild 

 berries. Yet, despite the mischief w^hich it perpetrates in our 

 gardens by devouring and spoiling much of the choicest fruit — for 

 your thrush is an epicure, and tastes none but the ripest and best 

 — the service which it renders as a devourer of insects more than 

 compensates for all. So the gardener, if a wise man, will prefer the 

 scare-crow to the gun, the protecting net to that which captures. 



I know two adjoining estates in Yorkshire. On one the gar- 



