28 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



said to be unknown, the Thrush is generally dis- 

 tributed as a resident species throughout the British 

 Islands. 



In summer it prefers the woods and hillsides, the 

 bushy banks of streams, and sheltered places at some 

 distance from human habitations, although in culti- 

 vated districts it often nests in the orchards, gardens, 

 and hedges. In winter the individuals which made 

 the woods and glens their summer residence ap- 

 proach the houses, and feed in the gardens and 

 fields, or betake themselves to the sea-shore, where 

 they find subsistence by breaking shells and other 

 shell-fish. 1 Our resident Thrushes in autumn receive 

 considerable additions to their numbers by migra- 

 tory flocks from the north, as every sportsman 

 must have observed when walking the turnip fields 

 in September. 



In a paper " On the Migratory Habits of the 

 Song Thrush," printed in The Ibis for 1860, Pro- 

 fessor Newton has expressed the opinion that this 

 bird throughout the greater part of its geographi- 

 cal range is "essentially migratory." Referring to 

 observations made by himself and his brother in 



1 Macgillivray, British Birds, vol. ii. p. 133. 



