12 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



spring gales. Less varied, and more interrupted 

 than that of the mavis ; less melodious than that of 

 the blackbird, the song is still sufficiently thrush- 

 like to be easily recognised as belonging to that 

 musical family, and sufficiently early to be welcome, 

 and delightful. 



While, in England this is a familiar garden bird, 

 building carelessly in bushes and shrubbery ; in 

 Scotland he is one of our wildest wood birds, 

 choosing, with unerring instinct, the most difficult 

 trees to climb. The last nest I saw was on an 

 oak sapling, drawn out to portentous length and 

 thinness, in its endeavour to reach the upper light 

 and air ; and with a nasty elbow about the middle, 

 round which it was well-nigh impossible to wriggle. 

 I could not help thinking that the builder saw the 

 strategic advantage of that bend in his contest of 

 cunning with the schoolboy. 



There is nothing more marked in the bird life 

 of Scotland than the rapid increase of this form. 

 Already, there are signs that he is overflowing from 

 the wilds into the neighbourhood of houses; and, 

 in some places, his song comes as often from the 

 topmost twig of the apple-tree, as from the topmost 

 whorl of the spruce-fir. 



A fortnight later, the song- thrush, or mavis- 



