182 THRUSHES. 



when on the nest. In thirteen days the young birds 

 were out of their shells, which the old ones carried off. 

 It is generally supposed that the usual food for nestling 

 Thrushes consists of grubs and worms, quantities of 

 which they may be constantly seen collecting on lawns, 

 particularly after showers have moistened the earth; 

 and, to those who have opportunities of observing them, 

 nothing can be more interesting than the way they, as 

 well as Blackbirds and some other birds, set about it. 



Watch an old Thrush pounce down on a lawn mois- 

 tened with dew or rain. At first he stands motionless, 

 apparently thinking of nothing at all, his eye vacant, or 

 with an unmeaning gaze. Suddenly he cocks his ear on 

 one side, makes a glancing sort of dart with his head and 

 neck, gives perhaps one or two hops, and then stops, 

 again listening attentively, and his eye glistening with 

 attention and animation ; his beak almost touches the 

 ground, he draws back his head, as if to make a deter- 

 mined peck. Again he pauses ; listens again ; hops, 

 perhaps, once or twice, scarcely moving his position, and 

 pecks smartly on the sod ; then is once more motionless 

 as a stuffed bird. But he knows well what he is about ; 

 for, after another moment's pause, having ascertained 

 that all is right, he pecks away with might and main, 

 and soon draws out a fine worm, which his fine sense of 

 hearing had informed him was not far off, and which his 

 hops and previous peckings had attracted to the surface, 

 to escape the approach of what the poor worm thought 

 might be his underground enemy, the mole. But to re- 

 turn to the young Throstles in the shed. In this case 

 the food was not worms, but snails. The old ones 

 brought them in their shells, from which they cleared 

 them, by breaking the shell with a smart knock on the 

 tooth of the harrow, catching the snail, without, in one 

 instance, letting it fall. They now and then varied the 

 feast with a few worms, and occasionally with butterflies 

 and moths. As is usual with almost all birds, the old 

 ones were invariably seen to carry away the dung of the 



