8 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



^ 

 rarel}' remains very long in the open, yet is less skulking than his cousin, 



the Blackbird. 



Sometimes the Song Thrush proceeds by a series of hops, but certainly 

 not always. He frequently runs as above described, but never walks sedately 

 after the manner of a Starling; even when seeking for worms in a meadow 

 or on a grass-plot he hops, and so he does when crossing a flower bed; but 

 on a path, I have rarely known this Thrush to move in any other way but 

 by running. 



The nest of the Song Thrush is usually built low down in the fork of 

 a young tree, a shrub, especially an evergreen, the lower branches of old yew 

 trees are also frequently selected as a building site. Occasionally, a nest may 

 be seen among matted creepers, or even in the upper twigs of a rude wattle 

 fence forming the walls of a country cart-shed. In hawthorn hedges, on ivy- 

 covered walls, among stunted willows by streams, in crevices of rocks, or at 

 the roots of a tuft of heather it may also be met with. The formation 

 of the nest is somewhat different from that of the other British Thrushes. 

 Externally, it is somewhat similar, being formed of slender twigs, roots, grasses, 

 dead leaves, and moss; but internally it has a lining of mud and rotten wood 

 or cow dung, so neatly rounded and smoothed off, that it much resembles 

 the interior of half a large cocoa-nut shell. This deep smooth cavity is pro- 

 duced in the most simple manner, namely: by the hen bird squatting down and 

 turning round and round in it whilst the lining is soft. 



The number of eggs laid by the Song Thrush varies from three to six, 

 but five is the usual number; where only three eggs are deposited, it is 

 probable that the first nest has been taken and a second one built immediately. 

 In such cases I have known the new home to be built and lined in two 

 days, the first egg being deposited whilst the mud lining was still moist; but 

 the Song Thnish rarely builds in less than three days. In the case of this 

 and all species at the beginning of the breeding season, a commencement 

 of building operations is frequently made before the mother is nearly ready 

 to lay. A nest is started and pulled to pieces, or deserted in an unfinished 

 condition; this playing at building has given careless observers, or such as 

 have not noted, year by year, the building of nests by the same species, an 

 exaggerated idea of the time required for the construction of bird-homes.* 



The colouring of the eggs of Turdus musicus is greenish blue, with distinct 

 deep brown (almost black) spots ; usually scattered sparsely over the larger end, 



Dixon mentions the fact of the Song Thrush, after being robbed of its first uest, building in succession 

 no less than three perfectly constructed nests within five days. 



