84 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
shells surrounding them testify most thoroughly to 
the beneficial character of their destroyer. 
Each thrush seems to select some particular stone, 
to which it brings all its victims, even from some 
little distance, and hammers them thereon until their 
shells are so broken that they can easily be extracted 
and swallowed—very much as the black and the 
hooded crows open mussels, by dropping them from 
a height upon the rocks. I once found twenty-one 
of these stones in a single garden in the course of a 
single morning, the broken shells scattered around 
them ranging from six to about twenty-five in 
number. 
In addition to snails, the thrush feeds largely upon 
slugs, worms, and insects, and thereby fully estab- 
lishes its claim to the gratitude and protection of the 
agriculturist. During the nesting season it is espe- 
cially useful, and has been known to feed its young 
more than two hundred times in the course of a 
single day. 
It cannot be denied, however, that during summer 
and autumn it is a frequent visitor to the fruit-garden, 
wherein its proceedings are not altogether of a bene- 
ficial character. But, just as in the case of many 
other birds, we must weigh the evil with the good ; 
and no one is likely to assert that in the case of the 
thrush the latter does not preponderate. 
The nesting arrangements of the thrush are, so far 
as concealment is concerned, little if at all better 
than those of the blackbird, save and except that it 
does not publish the whereabouts of its domicile by 
