SONG THRUSH. 91 



tinned with little intermission ; and when we 

 have seen the same kind of weather prevail before 

 winter had entirely passed, the thrush may be 

 heard attempting his lay even in January and 

 February ; for the last few years where, in the 

 north at least, a winter of frost and snow has 

 scarcely been known, the music was sung fre- 

 quently, and with an approach to its usual clear- 

 ness. This bird, which is arboreal in its usual 

 habits, when gaining the limits of its range 

 where the wood becomes scanty and stunted, still 

 retains its desire for an elevated perch during the 

 continuance of its song ; and in the northern ex- 

 tremity of Scotland, the pinnacle of a rock is often 

 selected as the site, whence to cheer his mate, 

 who has selected her breeding place in the 

 brush or ivy screen, or, perhaps, in the rank and 

 tangled herbage growing on the edges of the 



cliff below.* 



The Song Thrush is generally distributed over 

 the whole of Britain. It is met with in the richest 

 demesnes, and abundantly in the vicinity of gar- 

 dens, attracted by the plentiful supply of food ; 

 while it is also found in the wilds of our northern 

 Highlands and Hebrides, where the stunted copse 



* As indicating this propensity for selecting an elevated 

 singing place, whatever the character of the country, Mr 

 Thompson writes, *' When travelling over a very wild 

 mountain tract between Cushendall and Ballycastle, 

 covered with heath, and having no trees within miles, 

 the nearer one (a Song Thrush) was perched on a ragweed 

 that overtopped the heath." Thomp. Mag. of Zool. and 

 Bot. II. p. 434. 



