132 THE THRUSH'S NEST. 



thin layer of mud, cowdimg, or rotten wood, neatly ; be- 

 tween this and the eggs no other substance is interposed ; 

 the materials however vary considerably. The nest is 

 placed in a thick bush, or on a hedge not far up, or on a 

 bank among the woody undergrowth ; it is sometimes 

 found among the stunted willows on the bank of a stream, 

 also in the crevice of a rock, or at the root of a tuft of 

 heath. The eggs are generally five in number, of a bright 

 blueish green colour, with scattered spots of brownish black, 

 which are more numerous at the larger end ; the}' vary con- 

 siderably in size, the maximum length being a little over 

 an inch. They are deposited towards the end of April, 

 and the young have been found abroad from the 20th of 

 April to the middle of June. A second brood is reared 

 in the season. The poet Clare has thus faithfully de- 

 scribed the 



THBUSH'S NEST, 



Within a thick and spreading hawthorn bush, 



That overhung a mole-hill large and round, 

 I heard from morn to morn a merry Thrush 



Sing hymns to sunrise, while I drank the sound 

 With joy ; and often an intruding guest, 



I watched her sweet toils on from day to day ; 

 How true she warped the moss to form her nest, 



And modelled it within with wood and clay ; 

 And by-and-bye, like heath-bells gilt with dew, 



There lay her shining eggs as bright as flowers, 

 Ink-spotted-over shells of green and blue ; 



And there I witnessed, in the summer hours, 

 A brood of nature's minstrels chirp and fly, 

 Glad as the sunshine and the laughing sky. 



Let us place beside this Grahame's cabinet picture o; 

 the home and domestic arrangements of the speckled 

 songster of the grove : 



Within the hazel bush or sloe is found 



The habitation of the wedded pair ; 



Sometimes behind the never-fading leaves 



Of ivy close that ever-twisting binds 



And richly crowns with clustering fruit of spring 



Some silver rock, or nodding castle wall ; 



Sometimes beneath the jutting root of elm 





