THRUSH. 



795 



are garden pests. If any casualty befals the female, I 

 the male immediately renews his song ; and if he ' 

 should not be able to attract another, he continues 

 the whole season over, so that the song of bereave- 

 ment, which has been attributed to the nightingale 

 and the turtle by the poets, is really by the missel 

 thrush. With him, however, it is no song of lamen- 

 tation ; for in nature there is no remembrance of 

 sorrow, it is a song of invitation to another ; and if 

 that other is not found till the very hot weather, then 

 this bird occasionally bursts violently into song, at 

 the time when most birds begin to be silent. 



These thrushes, and indeed almost all thrushes, 

 are unsocial birds, and very apt to quarrel and fight 

 upon matters both of occupation and of gallantry. 

 They are said, however, to be of some use to other 

 birds in the case of a predatory foe appearing upon 

 the breeding grounds. The male thrush, beuig a 

 vigilant watchman, keeps sounding the alarm until all 

 the finches and other small birds are mustered in a 

 state of excitement ; and then he leads them against 

 the enemy, who, though a fierce bird, is seldom 

 much of a soldier, and so he is beaten off, and the 

 victorious birds return to their domestic labours. 

 In winter and early spring the missel thrush generally 

 feeds on the leaves of the misseltoe and the ivy, and 

 it is from feeding on the former that the bird gets 

 the name of missel. 



j >THE SONG THRUSH (T. nnisicits). This is " the 

 thrush" by way of eminence, at least in England in 

 modern times. In Scotland it is the mavis. It is 

 considerably smaller than the missel thrush. The 

 length is about nine inches ; the extent of the wings 

 about thirteen and a half inches ; and the weight three 

 ounces ; the ground colour above is brownish grey, 

 and that below whitish red, with many spots of dusky 

 and rust colour ; there is also a yellowish tint on the 

 wing-coverts next the body ; but the colour is, upon 

 the whole, nearly the same as that of the missel 

 thrush, only the small size readily distinguishes them ; 

 and this one has an air of greater hardihood than the 

 other. It is also much more common, found in 

 more bleak and upland places, and it ranges farther 

 into the north on the continent of Europe. 



In Britain the song thrush is, in great part of its 

 motions, a resident bird, and one which merely 

 comes nearer houses, and passes into the warmer 

 districts, when the winter is very severe ; but on the 

 continent it is more migratory, and moves in great 

 flocks on the autumnal migration. There is a parti- 

 cular summer attraction for it in the north of Europe. 

 Great part of the surface there, beyond the tall 

 forests of pines, is covered with extensive brakes 

 of juniper, the berries of which are ripe in the sum- 

 mer, as they come to their size in the preceding year, 

 and have only to ripen during the last year they are 

 on the bushes. These bushes are close, and, from 

 the spiny nature of the leaves, they are not very 

 pleasant for birds of prey to beat ; so they form a 

 close and safe cover for the nests of the thrushes, at 

 the same time that the leaves afford an abundant 

 supply of food both to the birds and to their young. 

 When this supply fails them, or rather, when it 

 begins to be buried up by the snow, which comes 

 suddenly and in great quantity, the birds are driven 

 southward, and they proceed to more genial climates. 

 The north of Russia, rather than that of Scandinavia, 

 or the flats on which the junipers grow, are far more 

 extensive. Hence the autumnal migration_of thrushes 



is more to the eastward of the Baltic than across that 

 sea. They, however, distribute themselves along the 

 southern shores of the Baltic ; and it has been stated 

 that, in the city of Dantzic alone, little short of two hun- 

 dred thousand have been captured and sold for the 

 table in the course of one season. They occur in vast 

 numbers upon the eastern migration, and find their 

 way there not only to Greece and to Italy, but also, 

 as is said, to Egypt, in which latter they arrive in 

 October, and depart again in* March. The birds 

 which take these long journeys have not of course 

 more than one brood in the year, and that brood is 

 reared in the most northerly part of their range. 



With us they may be partially migrant, and indeed 

 there seem to be some varieties which are wholly so, 

 for the thrushes which are the greatest favourites 

 with the bird-catchers, as song birds, are not seen 

 before March, or after September. Those which do 

 not make long journeys, or pass into places where 

 the summer is short, breed twice, or even in some 

 instances three times, in the course of the season. 

 The nest is a compact structure, funned externally of 

 moss and fibres, and strengthened with an admixture 

 of mud. It is generally in the corner of a hedge or 

 bush, or of a thick tree, but seldom at any consider- 

 able elevation above the surface of the ground. The 

 eggs vary from three to six, being more numerous 

 when the birds breed only once in the year, and have 

 their broods later in the season. The ground colour 

 of the eggs is pale greenish blue, and they are mot- 

 tled with small spots of rust-colour and black, most 

 abundant toward the larger ends. Every one knows 

 the song of the thrush. It is very sweet, and has con- 

 siderable compass. In a state of wild nature thrushes 

 are not without a pugnacious tendency ; and, even in 

 confinement, they menace with their bills if annoyed. 

 They have, however, a good deal of what is usually 

 called intelligence, and can be made to repeat musi- 

 cal airs, or in some instances to articulate words. 

 When the family are called Thrushes, this is the bird 

 which may be considered the type, that is, the one 

 from which the principal characters of the family are 

 taken ; but when they are called Merles, the one 

 next to be noticed is the typical bird. 



THE BLACKBIRD (T. merula). The blackbird is 

 larger than the song thrush, and nearly as long as 

 the missel, but not so stout and heavy a bird. The 

 general colour of the plumage is black ; and the bill, 

 the feet, and a circle round the eye, are tawny 

 yellow. The bird does not, however, need any par- 

 ticular description, as it is one which is well known 

 to every body. 



The blackbird is ,very common in all the tem- 

 perate parts of Europe, and also of Asia, and it is by 

 no means so discursive in its habits as the song 

 thrush, though it is a migrant in the east of Europe 

 and in Asia. Blackbirds are even more solitary in 

 their habits than thrushes, and, even where they are 

 migratory, they do not collect in such numbers in 

 the autumn. In the richer parts of Britain, where 

 they may be considered as stationary, they are 

 always solitary except in the breeding season. They 

 are also very wary birds, and keep themselves much 

 out of harm's way, although they are very familiar, 

 that is, court the neighbourhood of houses, and appear 

 in gardens, even in the open places of cities, in the 

 cold season. 



They belong to that class of birds a class in 

 habit, though it consists of many orders, according to 



