48 THE BIRDS OF OXFOEDSHIRE. 



i*^ 



THE SONG-THRUSH. 



Turclus musicus. 



The Song-Thrush is resident as a species, but migratory as 

 to individuals; that is to say^ it is probable that the birds 

 which winter with us are not the same individuals which 

 have bred or been hatched here in summer, A certain number 

 always pass the winter here, but this depends to some extent 

 upon the nature of the season, more remaining during a mild 

 than in a severe winter, while in very hard weather they have 

 sometimes almost entii*ely disappeared. This migration of 

 winter birds is probably only mternal^ and does not extend 

 beyond the sea. About the beginning of February they 

 begin to return to us, and though some of our wintering 

 Thrushes, under the influence of genial weather, will have 

 sung occasionally from Christmas onwards, it is about this 

 time that in mild seasons every shrubberied garden, copse, and 

 wooded hedgerow will resound, morning and evening, with 

 the varied music of the Song-Thrush — a song which can be 

 more nearly expressed in words than that of any other of our 

 birds. The Song-Thrush has considerable powers of mimicry: 

 I once knew a caged bird which could imitate admirably the 

 mewing of a cat — about the last sou.nd one would imagine 

 a bird would like to hear. 



In September large numbers of migratory Song-Thrushes 

 visit us, haunting at first the turnip, potato, and bean fields, 

 and later on resorting to the hedgerows to feed on the ripen- 

 ing fru.it. Many sportsmen must have been struck l)y the 

 numbers of Thrushes they sometimes flushed when beating 

 out a field in September ; and later in the season, as you walk 

 down the hedgerows, they fly out every few yards uttering 

 their sharp ' tsic.' These migratory birds do not remain after 

 November. 



