14 BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 



changing Four, We have the thrush, the blackbird, the 

 skylark, and the robin, four of the sweetest birds that the 

 round world can show — 



" Tlie Throstle with his note so truer 



Shakespeare. 



" The Mavis mild and mellow.^'' 



Burns. 



" A few stars 

 Were lingering in the hcavois, ivhile the Thrush 

 Began calm-throated." Keats. 



The thrush is pre-eminently our bird of spring. While 

 the snow-drops, the " Fair Maids of February," are still in 

 early bloom, and before the crocus has lit its points of flame 

 or the primrose its pale fires, and while " the daffodils that 

 come before the swallow dares " are scarcely in their bud, 

 the thrush has burst forth in full song, its burden the " news 

 of buds and blossoming." There is little that is green yet 

 in copse and hedge : few tiowers worth a child's picking are 

 to be seen. But he is too full of his olad evanoel to be able 

 to keep from singing, and from the tufted larch 



" Rarely pipes the mounted thrush." 



