BABBLERS. 



119 



climate. Thinly dispersed over the British isles, the missel thrush is a soli- 

 tary and unsocial bird, differing considerably in its habits from the common 

 favourite, the Song Thrush, which dehghts to dwell in the cultivated precincts 

 of our shrubberies and gardens. Affecting remote situations, it retires from 

 human society to pasture lands, wide commons, or meadows skirted by or- 

 chards or groves, feeding, like its congeners, on snails, worms, and the larvae 

 of insects during the spring and summer ; but resorting to berries, especially 

 those of the mountain ash, the haw, and the mistletoe, when autumn and 

 winter deprive it of its more esteemed fare. The missel thrush is one of our 

 earliest breeders, the commencement of March being with it the season of 

 mcubation. It builds its nest sometimes in orchard trees, at others in those 

 of more lofty growth, such as the elm or oak ; and the nest, with a view to its 

 concealment, is artfully placed either close against the stem or in a fork of 

 one of the large branches ; being composed, on the outside, of coarse lichen, 

 grey moss, or such dried vegetation as may be found on the spot, correspond- 

 ing with the colour of the tree. The materials are carelessly interwoven ; but 

 within this outside covering is placed a layer of mud, neatly lined with fine 

 grasses. The eggs are five in number, of a pale bluish white, spotted with dull 

 red. 



Siih-Family III. 

 THE BABBLERS. TIMALIN.^. 



General Characteristics. — BUI moderate, with the culinen much curved and the 

 sides compressed to the tip, which is generally entire or only slightly emaiginated, 

 the gonys long and ascending ; the nostrils basal, and more or less exposed ; the 

 wings short and much rounded , the tail of various lengths and graduated ; the tarsi 

 lengthened, robust, and covered usually with an entire scale ; the toes long, strong, 

 and strongly scutellated above ; the claws more or less long, compressed, and acute. 



These birds are found in small flocks in the open jungles or in 

 cultivated places round the villages of India and Java. They are 

 generally seen on the ground, more especially near the trunks of 

 large trees, searching for various kinds of seeds and insects : while 

 thus employed, they continually utter a low chattering noise, 

 which is occasionally changed into a low guttural cry ; but some- 

 times they may be found perched upon a tree, pouring forth a 

 remarkably sweet song. Their nest is built in trees at no great 

 elevation : it is composed of small twigs carelessly put together. 

 The female usually deposits four eggs. 



The Common Grey Babbler {Timalia s;risea) is one of the commonest 

 birds of the Indian Peninsula, where it may be found in every garden, and 

 about the hedgerow avenues, trees, and topes * throughout the Carnatic. 



* "The vast numbers of plantations made of mango trees, especially throughout 

 Bengal, afford ample range to their feathered inhabitants. Some of these plantations, 

 or 'topes,' are of such extent, that an army of ten or twelve thousand men might encamp 



