SONG-THRUSH 45 



During the day, when not singing, the thrush is a silent bird ; 

 in the evening he becomes noisy, and chirps and chatters and screams 

 excitedly before settling to roost. 



Insects of all kinds, earthworms, and slugs and snails, are eaten 

 by the song-thrush. The snail-shells are broken by being struck 

 vigorously against a stone ; and as the same stone is often used for 

 the purpose, quantities of newly broken shells are sometimes found 

 scattered round it. He is a great hunter after earthworms, and it 

 would appear from his actions that the sense of hearing rather than 

 that of sight is relied on to discover the worm. For the worm, 

 however near the surface, is still under it, and usually a close bed 

 of grass covers the ground ; yet you will see a thrush hopping about 

 a lawn stand motionless for two or three seconds, then hop rapidly 

 to a spot half a yard away, and instantly plunge his beak into the 

 earth and draw out a worm. The supposition is that he has heard 

 it moving in the earth. He is also a fruit and berry eater, both wild 

 and cultivated. 



Redwing. 



Turdus iliacus. 



Upper parts olive -brown ; a broad white streak above the eye ; 

 under parts white, with numerous oblong, dusky spots ; under 

 wing-coverts and flanks orange-red. Length, eight and a half 

 inches. 



In size and general appearance the redwing resembles the song- 

 thrush. Like the fieldfare, he is a winter visitor from northern 

 Europe, arriving a little earlier on the east coast, and differing from 

 his fellow-migrants in being less hardy. He is more of an insect- 

 eater, and is incapable of thriving on berries and seeds ; hence in very 

 severe seasons he is the greater sufferer, and sometimes perishes in 

 considerable numbers when, in the same localities, the fieldfare is 

 not sensibly affected. Nor is he of so vagrant a habit as the larger 

 thrush : year after year he returns to the same place to spend the 

 winter months, feeding in the same meadows, and roosting in the 

 same plantations, until the return of spring calls him to the north. 

 He is partial to cultivated districts where there are woods and grass- 

 lands, and passes the daylight hours in meadows and moist grounds 

 near water, returning regularly in the evening to the roosting- 

 trees. 



