378 THE THRUSH FAMILY 



be inferred from the published accounts. They are gathered from 

 an examination of fifteen nests, found in bushes on a common, in 

 dense thickets, in garden hedges, on the ground in high grass. The 

 eight classes in which they are arranged represent eight different 

 variations in the nature of the material used in the composition of 

 the plaster with which the interiors of the nests were lined. 



1. Plastered entirely with small bits of decayed wood (3 nests). 



2. Plastered entirely with small bits of decayed wood and chips 



of dry stems (1 nest). 



3. Plastered with decayed weeds, more or less mixed with earth, 



and set thickly with bits of decayed wood (2 nests). 



4. The same without the admixture of earth (4 nests). 



5. The same as 3, but with the addition of chips of straw (1 



nest). 



6. Plastered with decayed weeds, without wood or earth, but 



flecked with chips of straw (2 nests). 



7. Plastered with a thin mud paste, without visible vegetable 



admixture, set thickly with chips of dry grass stalks 

 (1 nest). 



8. Plastered only with earth and fine decayed vegetable matter 



(1 nest). 



In all except the first two classes the basis of the plaster is, as in 

 the case of the other species, composed of mud or decayed weeds or 

 both. A ninth variation is supplied by the use of horse and cow- 

 dung ; a tenth by a mixture of the same with mud ; l an eleventh by 

 the addition to the wood chips of particles of reed and thistledown 

 (Hewitson). There are no doubt others. But this is enough to show 

 the extent of the possible variations. 



The most interesting of the thrush's nest-plasters are the first 

 and second, those made entirely of decayed wood, or of the same 

 combined with chips of grass-stems or straw. These show a hard, 

 fairly smooth surface, and are attached directly to the inside of the 



1 Country Life, February 19, 1910 (A. Taylor). 



