70 



NOTES TO THE 



the missel thrush have been selected from some hundred speci- 

 mens. It lays from four to five eggs. The missel thrush is the 

 largest of our native thrushes. The origin of the name is un- 

 certain ; they are very common all over England, nevertheless 

 they are migratory, and come with the felts and redwings, feed- 

 ing on the mountain ash and other berries. They are never 

 kept in captivity ; they sing almost any time of the year, except 

 autumn ; they are very good eating." G. NAPIER. 



MISSEL THRUSH'S NEST, p. 90. " H." (Wexford) thus writes 

 to Land and Water : " One of my young ones informed me 

 there was a missel thrush's nest made nearly entirely of scraps 

 of newspapers that they had picked up, and a few days after- 

 wards I heard of a blackbird's similarly constructed. On look- 

 ing at the latter, what was my surprise to find nearly all the 

 scraps were portions of your paper, Land and Water. May I 

 ask, Was this natural selection ? Where the birds got the paper 

 there were scraps of half a dozen different newspapers, and how 

 were these blackbirds able to pick out those of your own paper 

 from all the others ? " 



BLACKBIRD'S NEST ORNAMENTED WITH LACE. Mr. Hugh 

 Hamilton, of Pinmore, Girvan, in Sept. 1875, wrote me as 

 follows : " In the month of May some laces were laid out on 

 the washing-green folded all together. They were left out all 

 night, but when looked for in the morning were not to be found. 

 As there was a good deal of wind in the night it was thought 

 they might have been blown over into a neighbour's garden, but 

 the gardens were searched without success. About three weeks 

 after, one of the neighbour's gardeners brought a blackbird's 

 nest with five eggs in it, to the owner of the lace, which he had 

 found in a tree in his garden. It was festooned with the lace 

 as in the photograph. There were three different kinds of lace 

 2J yards Lisle, 1 yard Mechlin, and 1^ yards Valenciennes, 

 besides several pieces of other lace worked in and out through- 

 out the nest, which were destroyed in detaching it. I inclose 

 a photograph which I took myself." Mr. Hamilton has allowed 

 this photograph to be copied for this book. The reader will 

 agree with me that it has been most beautifully drawn and 

 does great credit to the able pencil of Mr. Delamotte of King's 

 College. My answer was as follows : " I have no doubt the 

 blackbird used the lace in making its nest. An interesting 

 question arises from this as to whether the blackbird had an 

 idea that his nest would be ornamented with the lace. The 



