THRUSH. INSESSORES. MERULA. 159 



mild weather, its song is often heard as early as the month 

 of January. It usually sings from the highest branch of 

 some tall tree, continuing daily to serenade its mate during 

 the time of incubation, but becomes silent as soon as the 

 young birds are hatched. It is very courageous in the 

 breeding season, attacking indiscriminately all other birds 

 that approach its nest ; and I have sometimes witnessed its 

 resolute and successful defence against that fatal enemy to 

 eggs and young broods, the magpie. When disturbed, or 

 engaged in contest, it utters a harsh kind of scream. It sel- 

 dom mingles with the other species of thrushes, but more 

 frequently associates in small families during the winter, and 

 which resort to extensive pasture and meadow lands. 



The place chosen for nidification is commonly the cleft of Nest, &c. 

 a tree, and the nest is formed externally of white moss and 

 coarse grass, interwoven with wool, the whole being lined 

 with the fine stalks of dead grasses. 



In this depositary it lays four or five eggs, of a greenish- 

 white, spotted, and speckled with chestnut-brown and clove- 

 brown. 



PLATE 44. Fig. 1. Natural size. 



Bill blackish-brown ; the base of the upper mandible General 

 ochre-yellow. Irides brown. Head and upper part of descrip- 

 the body light hair-brown, passing into oil-green upon Adult 

 the rump. Greater wing-coverts and quills dark hair- 

 brown, margined with ash-grey and greyish-white. Tail 

 deep ash-grey, the outer feathers being tipped with 

 white, and the inner web of the outermost feather also 

 white. Throat, chin, and cheeks white, with triangular 

 blackish-brown spots. Breast, belly, and vent, yellow- 

 ish-white, passing into straw-yellow, with numerous 

 blackish brown spots on the flanks and under tail-coverts. 

 Feathers of the tibia white. Legs pale wood-brown. 

 The female is similar in plumage to the male bird. 



