THRUSH. 



797 



hood, they make tlicir evening assemblage ther 

 before they depart to the places where they are to 

 repose. In countries were they are abundant, anc 

 there is plenty of food for them, their flesh is held in 

 high estimation, as indeed is the case with that of al 

 the thrushes. 



The breeding place is not positively ascertained 

 but it is in more northerly latitudes than the birds 

 frequent in the winter; and many of the European 

 ones do breed in the north of Russia and Scandinavia 

 but it is supposed also that a considerable number 

 especially of those that winter in Italy or in Africa 

 breed to the south of the Baltic. The nest is in trees 

 or bushes, and the eggs from four to six in number 

 of a sea-green colour, mottled with rusty brown. 



RED-WING (T 7 . iliacus). This species migrates 

 about the same time as the fieldfare, and is often 

 found in company with it, but they are easily dis- 

 criminated ; and this one is more apt to be confounded 

 with the common thrush than with the other. It is a 

 smaller bird, however, being only about eight inches 

 long, and two ounces and a quarter in weight. The upper 

 parts are greyish, the under whitish, and the whole 

 marked with dusky spots ; the under sides of the 

 wings and the body under them are rusty red, from 

 which the bird gets its name ; its colours are alto- 

 gether more clear arid bright than those of the song 

 thrush, and its bill is blacker. 



The red-wing is a northern bird in the breeding 

 season, though perhaps not so much so as the field- 

 fare. It does not breed with us, at least the fact of 

 its doing so is not very well ascertained ; but it does 

 breed in some places, south of the Baltic, upon the 

 continent ; and it is not improbable that thev mav 

 breed in some parts of Britain, although the nest has 

 not been found, or the song of the male heard. With us 

 they have a sort of shrilly cry, between a squeak and 

 a whistle ; but in the northern parts of the continent, 

 where their breeding has been well ascertained, the 

 male has an agreeable song. They breed on the 

 bleak and bushy grounds in Holland and Germany, 

 and generally in places where there are wild berries ; 

 but their summer food consists of insects and their 

 larva? and worms. When their wild food fails in the 

 autumn, and, indeed, whether it fail or not, they are 

 apt to visit the orchards and gardens, and levy con- 

 tributions on the smaller fruits ; but, as is the case 

 with all birds which are insectivorous in the breeding 

 season, the ravages that they commit in the latter 

 part of the season are more than compensated by the 

 services which they perform in the spring. 



The red-wing, though it resembles the song thrush 

 in the appearance, and also in some of its habits, is 

 not so much a woodland bird. The nest is generally 

 in cover of some kind or other, but it is in the cover 

 of a hedge or bush, rather than in that of a tall tree. 

 The breeding season, at least in the more southerly 

 places, where the birds breed, is from April to June 

 inclusive ; and in the southerly places there are usu- 

 ally two broods within this period. The eggs, as in 

 most of the others, vary from four to six, of a pale 

 greenish-blue with dusky brown spots. This species 

 is subject to very considerable differences of colour; 

 and some individuals have been met with almost en- 

 tirely white when it comes as an autumnal migrant; 

 the red-wing, like the fieldfare, prefers the open fields 

 and the commons where there are hedges and brakes 

 to the thick cover of the woods. 



RING-THRUSH (T. torquatus). This species, which 



is also called the ring-ouzel, the blackbird being called 

 the black-ouzel, resembles the blackbird more than it 

 does the speckled thrushes ; but its haunts are, in 

 some respects, the very opposite. It is dusky black, 

 with a white collar forming a crescent on the upper 

 part of the breast ; its length is eleven inches, the 

 extent of its wings seventeen, and its weight four 

 ounces. It is well formed for flight, being thick and 

 firm at the shoulders, and tapering to the rear, and 

 the flying feathers, both of the wings and the tail, are 

 strong and elastic. It is a migrant bird, but its migra- 

 tion is a compound one, regulated both by difference 

 of ground and difference of latitude ; and sometimes 

 the one of these, and sometimes the other, predomi- 

 nates in bringing about the general result. It appears 

 on the low grounds in the temperate parts of Europe 

 both in the spring and in the autumn. In the summer 

 they disperse over the upland tracts, not the lofty 

 mountains, but the secondary hills, where they are 

 most partial to wild and rocky places. 



In Britain, the chief place for their spring appear- 

 ance is the middle of the south coast, from which 

 they diverge along the heights, being rarely if ever 

 found in the great valleys or the places which are 

 the favourite haunts of the warblers. The nest is in 

 a bush or tuft, or on the ledge of a rock where there 

 is an overhanging canopy either of rock or of vege- 

 tation. The male sings when in the wilds, but the 

 song is not a loud one, though rather sweet and 

 agreeable. It is usually delivered as the bird stands 

 perched on the point of a rock, or the top of some 

 elevated stone. Ground insects appear to be their 

 chief food in the breeding season, and such insects 

 are especially abundant in those places which the 

 birds frequent at that season. The nest is formed 

 of moss and lichen, of which the rocky places furnish 

 an abundant supply ; these are consolidated with 

 mud, and the whole lined with fine vegetable fibres ; 

 the eggs are from four to six, but very rarely the 

 latter number ; they resemble those of the blackbird ; 

 but the ground colour inclines more to green, and the 

 mottlings are more definite. There is one rather 

 formidable enemy of which the ring-thrush stands in 

 danger on its rocky pastures, and that is the martin, 

 which spends the summer upon nearly the same 

 grounds. 



The birds are usually on the low grounds again 

 about the month of September ; but they do not 

 remain in Britain all the winter ; and on the con- 

 tinent they also retire to the south"at that season. 



SOLITARY THRUSH (T. solitaris). This is also 

 called the blue thrush from its colour. It is a Euro- 

 pean species ; but we are not aware that any specimen 

 of it has hitherto occurred in Britain, even as a strag- 

 gler. Indeed it has but little tendency to migrate ; 

 and its migration, in so far as it does shift its ground 

 with the seasons, is not in latitude. It inhabits the 

 mountainous parts of the south of Europe ; and 

 mountain birds seldom have much tendency to mi- 

 grate, more particularly in countries not in very high 

 atitudes. In such places they have only to move up 

 he hill in summer, and down in the winter ; and a 

 e\v thousand feet of change in this way is equivalent 

 o a considerable range in latitude. The general 

 colour is blue, with grey margins to the feathers ; the 

 >ill and arch of the eyes yellow ; the size rather 

 smaller than that of the common blackbird, but the 

 labits a good deal the same ; the bird is shy and 

 vary, and builds its nest iit the most difficult parts of 



