MERULIDjE. 



four or five in number, of a beautiful light blue colour, 

 with a few small well-defined black spots over the larger 

 end, but sometimes without spots ; the length of the egg 

 one inch one line, by ten lines in breadth. An observer, 

 in Mr. London's Magazine of Natural History, after de- 

 tailing some particulars as to the nest building by a pair of 

 Thrushes, writes, " When all was finished, the cock took 

 his share of the hatching ; but he did not sit so long as the 

 hen, and he often fed her while she was upon the nest. 

 In thirteen days the young birds were out of the shells, 

 which the old ones always carried off." Mr. Jenyns, in 

 his Manual, says, the young of the first brood are hatched 

 about the beginning of April, and sometimes earlier. I 

 remember once to have seen young Thrushes on the last day 

 of March. The parent birds rear two broods in the season. 

 Mr. Knapp, in his Journal of a Naturalist, has related 

 an interesting fact in reference to the Thrush in the follow- 

 ing terms : " We observed this summer two Common 

 Thrushes frequenting the shrubs on the green in our garden. 

 From the slenderness of their forms and the freshness of 

 their plumage, we pronounced them to be birds of the 

 preceding summer. There was an association and friend- 

 ship between them that called our attention to their actions. 

 One of them seemed ailing, or feeble from some bodily 

 accident ; for though it hopped about, yet it appeared 

 unable to obtain sufficiency of food. Its companion, an 

 active, sprightly bird, would frequently bring it worms or 

 bruised snails, when they mutually partook of the banquet ; 

 and the ailing bird would wait patiently, understand the 

 actions, expect the assistance of the other, and advance 

 from his asylum upon its approach. This procedure was 

 continued for some days ; but after a time we missed the 

 fostered bird, which probably died, or by reason of its 

 weakness met with some fatal accident." 



