129 



THE SONG THBUSH. 



CHAPTER X. 



THRUSHES ' THE SONG THRUSH, MISSEL THRUSH, WHITENS 

 THRUSH. 



IN the family Turdince, Turdine birds, or Thrushes, we 

 have seven British species, two of which are well known, 

 and highly valued as songsters. All our native Thrushes 

 are birds of considerable size, and to a certain extent agree 

 in their general habits : thus they seek their food in fields 

 and pastures, where they advance by short leaps, but 

 betake themselves to woods and thickets to roost. 



SONG THRUSH. This is the Turdus musicus of natural- 

 ists, a name sufficiently indicative of the high estimation in 

 which it has ever been held as a songster. It is sometimes 

 called the Throstle, or Mavis, the latter name being that 

 commonly applied to it by old English writers a large 

 handsome bird, with a speckled plumage of yellowish or 

 reddish brown and white, too well known to every one 

 to need a particular description. It is a permanent resident 

 throughout the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, found 

 in the bare northern isles, as well as in the cultivated and 

 wooded districts of the south ; keeping during the summer 

 very much to the woods and hill sides, bosky dells, and 



