84 BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



emptied to allow a barge to pass on, or 

 to the deep tone of the church clock, as 

 it struck out the sixteen hours through 

 which he sang to us. 



Far underneath him, cosily hidden in 

 a small bush, his mate was sitting upon 

 their eggs. There were five of them, a 

 deeper blue than the sky, but when he 

 fed the sitting bird no one could tell, or 

 whether he took his turn at sitting was 

 also a mystery, for through almost every 

 available minute of daylight he seemed 

 to be singing. However, five baby 

 Thrushes duly appeared, and then he 

 did help to feed them. While I was in 

 hiding near the nest, and watching the 

 birds busily feeding their young, I noticed 

 how he would often, after giving them 

 food, mount on to a high branch and 

 sing. The hen did most of the feeding, 

 and I watched them for some days, but 

 as they grew he became more busy. On 

 one occasion he brought a long kind of 



