THRUSH. 49 



THRUSH. 



THROSTLE. SONG THRUSH. COMMON THRUSH. MAVIS. 



PLATE CI. 



Turdus musicus. PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



Merula musica, SELBY. 



"ATIDIFIC ATION commences the latter end of March, 

 -*-^l and the eggs are deposited earlier or later in 

 April, though sometimes not until May, according to 

 the season. Nests have been known to have been begun 

 even so early as the middle of February, but frost 

 caused them to be deserted. The birds are correspond- 

 ingly able to fly from the latter end of April to the 

 middle of June, and have been known to have been 

 hatched even on the last day of March. Mrs. Harriet 

 Murchison, of Bicester, Oxfordshire, has forwarded me 

 a specimen of a nest with four eggs, which was found 

 at that place on the 6th. of January, 1853. A second 

 brood is generally reared in the season, and if one set 

 of eggs is destroyed, a second is produced in a fort- 

 night, or even a third if need be. The female is ex- 

 tremely attentive to her charge, and will sit on the nest 

 until quite closely approached, and will sometimes suffer 

 herself to be taken sooner than forsake it. If you 

 disturb and alarm her, she will testify her anxiety by 

 flying round you with ruffled feathers and outspread 

 tail, uttering a note of alarm, and violently snapping 



VOL. II. H 



