388 THE THRUSH FAMILY 



and live, but wonder changes into something akin to awe when 

 one contemplates their majestic abdomens, so vast in proportion 

 to the size of the creature, that by contrast they reduce to an 

 alarming exiguity even the proportions of the proverbial alderman. 



On one occasion the parent bird was seen to push down the 

 throat of one of its young a worm it had omitted to cut up. 

 Seemingly unaware of the omission, and under the impression that 

 a fragment would remain behind, it withdrew its bill, still holding 

 one end of the worm. The young bird on its side, feeling that the 

 portion it expected to remain was following the rest up, closed down 

 upon it and held on, justly indignant. There was a tug-of-war, shown 

 in the photograph on Plate xin., p. 318, ending in the release of 

 the worm, which was there and then carved up on the edge of 

 the nest, and the fragments duly divided. This parent thrush 

 was more intelligent than a blackbird which, according to Weir, 

 insisted on one of its nestlings swallowing a worm four inches 

 long. The heroic youngster, after violent efforts, achieved the feat, 

 but one is not surprised to learn that it rested from its labours for 

 three hours afterwards. 1 Not all parent birds are as insistent as 

 this one. I have found a nestling thrush with the end of a long 

 worm hanging from its beak. Apparently this youngster had been 

 left to digest its meal in segments. 



It occasionally happens that all the young in a nest are literally 

 full ; in which case, whether there be a will or not, there is clearly 

 no way, our proverb to the contrary notwithstanding. The parent 

 is compelled to recognise the fact, and will then often brood, still 

 holding the unfortunate worms in her beak. This was not, however, 

 the procedure of a tame thrush set to act as foster-parent to a 

 nestful of wild young of the same species. When these showed a 

 disinclination to open their mouths, it is reported to have tapped 

 them soundly on the head until they did so. None of your new- 

 fangled notions for this bird. It believed in the good old methods, 



1 Macgillivray, History of Birds, vol. ii. 



