50 THRUSH. 



the bill. If unmolested, both birds have been known 

 to pick up crumbs of bread thrown down to them, and 

 to give them to their young. 



The nest is composed of moss, small twigs, straws, 

 leaves, roots, stems of plants, and grass, compacted 

 together with some tenacious substance with tolerable 

 ingenuity, and is lined with a congeries of clay and 

 decayed wood. It is placed in a hedge or thick bush 

 of any kind at a small height from the ground, and 

 likewise at times on a rough bank among moss, bram- 

 bles, or shrubs, as also, where the country is unwooded, 

 on the level ground, at the most under the shelter of 

 some projecting stone or crag, in the crevice of a rock, 

 or in a tuft of heath. 



Mr. John H. Blundell, of Luton, Bedfordshire, in- 

 forms me that he has found the nest of a Thrush in 

 the side of a round wheat stack. The Rev. W. Waldo 

 Cooper, of West Rasen, Lincolnshire, records in the 

 'Zoologist,' page 1775, that he has found one on the 

 ground, three feet from the nearest bush; and at page 

 1023, John Barlow, Esq. relates a similar instance. 



The eggs, usually four or five in number, are of 

 a beautiful clear greenish blue colour, with more or 

 fewer distinct black spots and dots, principally over the 

 larger end. The youngest of my three boys, Marma- 

 duke Charles Frederick Morris, has one entirely plain, 

 with the exception of a single dot. N. Rowe, Esq., 

 of Worcester College, has taken the eggs of a uniform 

 blue, without any spots or specks; and J. R. Wise, 

 Esq., of Lincoln College, Oxford, has another of the 

 same variety. James Dalton, Esq., of Worcester Col- 

 lege, Oxford, has forwarded me another they seem 

 to be not very uncommon. They vary considerably 

 in size: some are very small. 



