208 BRITISH BIRDS 



better be left till another occasion, and should on no 

 account be forcibly removed. If the nails, or bill, grow 

 too long they should be trimmed with a pair of sharp 

 scissors or a penknife, taking care in either case not to 

 go too near the quick. 



If a Thrush does not moult readily, increase the allow- 

 ance of insect food, and if that does not prove sufficient 

 to get him out of his difficulty, add ten or twelve drops 

 of Squire's syrup of hypophosphites (chemical food) to 

 the drinking water (two tablespoonfuls), and a beneficial 

 result will speedily follow. 



A Thrush should not be kept too warm, as in a 

 kitchen or a heated conservatory, for example ; but care 

 must be taken that he is not exposed to draughts, and if 

 kept in an ordinary living-room the cage must be hung 

 below the level of the gas or lamp. 



With the foregoing directions duly attended to there is 

 no reason why one of these birds should not live for 

 twelve or fifteen or even more years in the house, 

 although the Father of Cage-bird Lore, Bechstein, only 

 credits him with five or six. When allowed to breed, 

 however, he will rarely survive for more than seven or 

 eight years. 



Without exactly being a disease, the intense desire for 

 pairing that possesses some Thrushes in the spring may 

 give rise to serious and even to fatal complications, and 

 the best thing to be done when the condition is discovered 

 is to get the poor bachelor a mate, or failing that, to 

 turn him loose in a large room and feed him more 

 sparingly than usual, when the attack will gradually work 

 off and the bird be himself again. 



The song of the Thrush has always been much admired, 

 and by almost universal consent he has been voted a 

 good second to the Nightingale, which, perhaps, is an 

 over-rating of his merits, although he is a capable vocalist all 

 the same the tenor, as one might say, of the feathered 

 choir. But he requires to be listened to amid his natural 

 surroundings in order to be properly appreciated, for his 

 reiterated calls for "Frederick, Frederick, Frederick,' 7 are 

 apt to become a trifle wearisome when repeated, as they 



