PRELIMINARY NOTICES. 



To the Editor of the Magazine of Natural History. 



SIR, 



There are a few points to M'hich I desire to reply irr the 

 notice of Ornithologia, in the Magazine of Natural History, 

 \ol. i. page 341. 



First, I wish to observe that " the chief of my knovvletlgc 

 of the natural history of birds bas been obtained by a long 

 residence in Somersetshire, at Huntspill, of which place I 

 am a native ;" that the observations which I have made on 

 the Song Thrush (tardus musicus) are particularly appli- 

 cable to facts with which I have there become acquainted. 

 I have stated also that " we must not be in haste to con- 

 demn what we have not ourselves witnessed ;" throughout 

 my work I hope I have been constantly impressed with this 

 sentiment. 



Nest of the Thrush. 



Now, although I am not prepared to deny that, some- 

 times and in some places, the nest of the song-thrush might 

 be plastered with cow-dung, yet I do strongly suspect that 

 no clay enters, even as a cement, into the composition of the 

 plaster; and I am led to this conclusion chiefly from the 

 lightness of the nest. The Blackhird^s nest {Turdus 7nerula) 

 is, I am well aware, plastered with claij, over which is laid 

 dry grass or some such material ; and it is, in consequence 

 of having clay in its composition, much heavier than the 

 thrush's nest. That I have never seen a nest of the thrush 

 in Somersetshire lined with cow-dung, I think I may confi- 

 dently assert. The lining of the thrush's nest, there, at least, 

 I have always found of a very light buff colour ; and that it 

 consists chiefly of rotten wood, I am equally well assured, 



