BIRDS THRUSHES 19 



out a worm. Sometimes he makes a mistake, 

 or, at all events, fails to make a catch, but not 

 often. How does he do it? Does his quick 

 sight detect some slight movement, or his 

 quick ear some slight sound ? Or has he any 

 other sense of smell or sensation that helps 

 him? Another marvel about the matter to 

 anyone who has himself tried to pull a worm 

 out of the ground is the ease with which a 

 thrush manages so neatly and quickly to 

 extract its victim entire. 



I have found a throstle's nest in the side of 

 a haystack, and was told of one in a pigstye 

 and of another inside the porch of a house. 

 In 1901 a throstle built in the roof of the 

 lychgate of the churchyard close to this 

 garden. Although the first nest was taken 

 she made another in the same place and had 

 very nearly hatched her eggs when again the 

 thoughtless cruelty of boys made all her 

 labour vain and abused the confidence she 

 had so bravely shown in men. She used to 

 sit on quite calmly, though only just above 

 the heads of people as they went through the 

 gate. 



Generally speaking, throstles are so tame 

 here that they hardly move out of your way, 

 at most hopping a foot or two further off ; and 

 one will go on with his song undisturbed 

 as I pass through an archway of pink thorn on 

 which he is perched not two feet above. 

 They are naturally, I think, more friendly in 



