THE THRUSH GENUS 385 



the hen. The self-sacrificing devotion of the latter is illustrated 

 by the following statement made by Mr. A. Taylor, who had a song- 

 thrush's nest under observation close to his bedroom window. On 

 looking through the window at twelve o'clock one night, he saw 

 the hen bird to all appearance dead upon the nest. "Her back 

 was covering the eggs, and with feet in the air, and head hang- 

 ing on one side, she seemed to be entirely lifeless." A tap on 

 the window instantly brought her to life ; she awoke with a start, 

 turned, and sank rapidly into her normal crouching position upon 

 the eggs. Subsequent observation showed that she was rarely 

 to be found sitting at night in the accustomed way, " but either on 

 her back or on her right or left side." It would be interesting to 

 know whether this strange method of incubation was anything more 

 than an individual eccentricity. 1 



It is not difficult to understand that so active and warm-blooded 

 a creature as a bird must find it trying to sit hour after hour, day 

 and night, in the same position, even though possessed by an 

 instinctive desire to incubate. How fatiguing a long period of 

 incubation can be will be realised by any one who has seen an 

 eider-duck forced to quit her nest, scarcely able sometimes to keep 

 her body above the ground, her webbed feet striking against the 

 rocks as she flies with heavy wings toward the sea. 



The individual differences in the behaviour of cock Thrushes 

 with regard to their incubatory and nest-building duties does not 

 appear to repeat itself in the case of the feeding of the young, the 

 evidence being overwhelmingly in favour of habitual participation. 

 As soon as the nestlings break their shells, the cock is to be found 

 ready at the nest, though he may not previously have been near 

 it for a fortnight. During the first few days after this event, he 



1 Country Life, February 19, 1910. 

 3D 



