BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 27 



and when that curious person is forthcoming he ought to 

 make his subject one of a very curious and lasting interest. 



Meanwhile the thrush is with us, year in year out, singing 

 whenever it can, and persecuting snails in the intervals. 

 For though it is fond of worms, and dotes on the berries of 

 the mountain-ash, it has a perfect passion for snails. If a 

 thrush is in a bush in a garden, and you throw a snail on to 

 the garden path close by it, the thrush is promptly out. The 

 sound of the shell on the gravel attracts it at once, for it is 

 familiar with it. In winter, when the snails have all cuddled 

 up together in some corner behind the flower-pots, or between 

 the pear-tree stem and the wall, the thrush finds them out, 

 and so long as a snail remains the thrush will stop. Nor is 

 it a shy bird when thus engaged, for if you come suddenly 

 upon it, walking quietly on the snow, it will hop off with its 

 victim a little way and begin again tapping the poor snail 

 upon a stone, till the litde householder is left without a wall 

 to protect it, and is swallowed. And if a thrush finds a 

 secluded corner with a convenient stone there, it always takes 

 its snails to the same spot, building up in its own way a little 

 shell-midden, like those which prehistoric man has left us, of 

 oyster-shells and clams, to puzzle over. When driven by 

 stress of weather to the seashore, it treats the hard-shelled 

 whelks just as it treated the garden-snails, and by persistent 

 rapping on the rocks, arrives at its food. 



By nest, and, above all, by song, this bird is probably 



