ORANGE-CHEEKED WAXBILLS 



CHAPTER IV 

 ROCK THRUSHES 



" The bird will love you if you treat it kindly ; is as 

 frank and friendly as bird can be." 



MY Rock Thrush is worthy of a separate 

 chapter, though one perhaps necessarily 

 curtailed in length, owing to the fact that 

 so much that describes his wild life and his residences 

 is identical with that of the blue thrush, his cousin. 

 You know one of our most beautiful migratory birds, 

 the redstart, don't you ? That bright little fellow that 

 arrives from Africa in April, with his sweet though not 

 prominent song, his quivering rufous tail, his black 

 throat, and his snowy white forehead. Well ! the 

 rock thrush is in his manners and movements un- 

 commonly like a big redstart ; that is to say, whilst 



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