THE SONG-THRUSH. 



29 



lines her nest a second time, making it smooth and 

 rounded as any specimen of the potter's art, and then 

 leaves it for probably a day or so to dry, ere the eggs 

 are deposited. The eggs of the Song thrush are very 

 beautiful objects. They are deep greenish-blue (by the 

 way, a difficult colour to describe), spotted with small 

 deep brown spots, and four or five in number. You 

 sometimes find eggs of the Song-thrush richly blotched 

 with reddish-brown and light purple ; others are pure 

 and spotless. The eggs of the Song-thrush are also 

 subject to no small degree of variation in size, the largest 

 and finest eggs being laid by the more matured birds. 

 Silence is the protective power, as a rule, employed by 

 the Song-thrush, although pugnacious motions are some- 

 times, though rarely, employed. The notes of the sitting 

 bird, when scared from the nest, are almost as harsh as 

 those of the Stormcock. Both birds sit upon the eggs 

 and young, and tend their young for a short time after 

 they quit the ne.-t for ever. All birds, I am convinced, 

 understand the notes of their congeners when in distress 

 or menaced by danger. Notice how, when you have 

 unwittingly disturbed a brood of young Song-thrushes, 

 for instance, the harsh and distressful cries of the parent 

 birds draw other birds to the vicinity of the tumult, 

 undoubtedly drawn thither by feelings of sympathy, or 

 for the purpose of uniting to repel the advances of the 

 oppressor The Song-thrush rears two broods in the 

 year at least. 



Here the Song-thrush is a decidedly migratory bird. 

 They leave us, with one or two solitary exceptions, by 

 the early part of November's foggy month. Their 

 numbers decrease about the Redwing's arrival, and go on 

 doing so until the middle of November, with the above 

 result. In the shrubberies where they formerly abounded 



