PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 319 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nest is generally in the fork of a forest tree at a 

 fair height, but sometimes quite low down. In treeless districts and on the coast 

 it is not infrequently found on ledges of cliffs or in stone walls, rarely on the 

 ground (ZooL, 1903, pp. 226, 312). It is built of grasses, bents, wool, lichens, and 

 other materials, solidified with mud and lined with dry grasses. (PL xin.) The 

 male is said to share in its construction (Fatio, Faune de la Suisse, ii. ; Bailly, 

 Ornith. de la Savoie, ii. p. 191). Eggs generally 4, rarely 5 in number. W. Farren 

 has found 6. (Cf. ZooL, 1910, p. 226.) They are blotched and spotted with reddish 

 brown and violet on a tawny or greenish white ground. Sometimes the ground 

 colour is a distinct blue. (PL C.) Average size of 100 eggs, 1-16 x -87 in. [29 -56 x 

 22'27 mm.]. Laying begins sometimes in February, but generally towards the end 

 of March or early in April. Incubation is performed by both sexes, and lasts 15 

 days. Two broods are usually reared, sometimes from the same nest. [F. c. R. J.] 



5. Food. Worms, insects, snails, berries, fruit, and occasionally seeds, and 

 in hard weather on the coast shell-fish (see p. 354). The young are fed by both 

 parents, chiefly on worms and insects, sometimes on berries. W. Farren has seen 

 them fed with ivy berries and cherries. [F. B. K.] 



6. Song Period. It is generally heard from September to June, and is at 

 its best from about the end of December to when the young are hatched, usually 

 in April. [F. B. K.] 



SONG-THRUSH [Turdus musicus clarkei, Hartert. 1 Mavis, throstle, 

 snail- jobber, grey-bird. French, grive ; German, Sing-drossel ; Italian, 

 tordo bottacio], 



I. Description. Distinguished at once by the uniform warm olive-brown 

 of the upper parts, and the fan-shaped black spots of the under parts giving place 

 to striations on the flanks. The ground colour of the fore-breast (prepectus) and 

 the sides of the neck is of a rich golden buff, the throat, lower part of the breast, 

 and abdomen are white. (PL 35.) The lores and superciliary streak are buff- 

 coloured, the sides of the head and auriculars are mottled with black, while the 

 throat is bounded on either side by a band of black striations on a buff ground. 

 The median wing-coverts are tipped with buff, and similar, but less distinct, 



1 If the tenth, and not the twelfth edition of Linneeus is followed, the name Turdus musicus 

 should be applied to the redwing. In this case the name of the song-thrush would be Turdus 

 philomelos of Brehm (1831) as it comes next in order of priority ; but to discard T. musicus now 

 would only cause confusion, and so defeat the main aim of nomenclature and classification. ED. 



