THE THRUSH GENUS 357 



admire the delicate pencilled markings on their flanks, I have noted 

 the blackbird still hard at work, scratching the soil and tossing aside 

 the leaves with feverish energy and unabated hope in the dusky 

 recesses beneath thick sheltering hawthorns. 1 



One has indeed only to see and hear the bonny " ouzel-cock " to 

 feel he has good store of superfluous vitality. He puts the maximum 

 of energy into all he does. Listen to him as, suddenly quitting his 

 retreat, he whisks his black shape into view, outraging the quiet of 

 your garden, with his noisy rattle, uttered sometimes for no apparent 

 reason, unless it be to release his pent up spirits, or else to enjoy the 

 momentary alarm he causes his sedater relatives the thrushes as they 

 stand statuesque upon the lawn. Watch him on alighting swing up 

 the handsome tail so that, for a moment, it shows against its back- 

 ground like a mark of exclamation. Keep watching him, as he pauses 

 alert, suspicious, not pleased with you, with your ways, or with your 

 garden, and you may see him, with flicks and jerks of wing and 

 tail, and "minks" and "tchuks," pass from indignant interrogation 

 to more indignant expostulation, and thence to most indignant 

 condemnation, till suddenly off he goes, jerking indignation from 

 his tail: "Others may put up with that sort of thing, but not 

 he ! No indeed ! ! " Again who so noisy in our garden as the black- 

 bird when he "minks" and "tchuks" and " weet-a-weets " his way 

 to bed ! From his attitude towards this familiar function, one 

 might imagine he performed it under protest, that he regarded sleep 

 as a base stratagem invented by Providence to curtail each day the 

 legitimate expression of his feelings. 



All our Thrushes, like birds in general, are more or less vocal, and 

 sometimes harmonious, before going to sleep. They roost in trees, 

 bushes, or creepers. The fieldfare sleeps often on the ground among 

 stubble, grass, or heath, a fact noted long ago by Gilbert White, who, 



1 In this connection the following extract from Couch's Illustrations of Instinct (p. 116) is 

 interesting : " When in past years I have been engaged in taking birds with a hook and line, I 

 have observed that the thrush and redwing would endeavour to disengage the bait by running 

 to the end of the cord, and there pulling at it with all their might, but that the blackbird 

 would rub the bait on the ground with its feet as the hen digs for food." 



