SONG-THRISH. INSESSORES. MERULA. 163 



of those bred in the island remain stationary through the 

 whole year. But these our native birds are augmented by 

 the visits of vast flocks, in the course of their autumnal jour- 

 ney from the more northern countries of Europe. These last 

 generally make their appearance before the Redwing and 

 Fieldfare, and, after recruiting their strength for a few days, 

 move onward in a southerly direction. Like many of our 

 other autumnal visitants, they arrive with a north or north- 

 east wind, plainly indicating the countries from whence they 

 hold their progress. The Thrushes which remain with us, 

 never associate in flocks during the winter, like the two 

 above-mentioned species, but continue dispersed throughout 

 the country, haunting the thickets and hedges, where they 

 find a supply of insects and slugs, and of such berries as form 

 their principal food during the inclement season of the year. 

 Upon the approach of very severe frosts, or falls of snow, I 

 have observed that they move from the interior of the coun- 

 try towards the sea-coast, where the influence of the sea- 

 breeze soon dissolving the snow, exposes a portion of ground 

 sufficient to furnish them with a scanty subsistence. If the 

 season should prove temperate, the male bird begins to pour 

 forth his love-notes as early as the latter part of January, or 

 the beginning of the month following. In March the pair 

 commence nidification, and the first brood flies about the 

 month of May. 



The nest is composed of grass and mosses closely inter- Nest, &t. 

 woven, and the inside is plastered over with a composition of 

 rotten wood and clay, which, as MONTAGU observes, is usual- 

 ly so compactly wrought as to retain water, on which account 

 a rainy season is often the destruction of the eggs. 



It is placed in thorn-bushes or young trees, sometimes on 

 the stump, or against the side of a tree, particularly of one 

 embraced by ivy. The eggs are four or five in number, and 

 their colour is bluish-green, spotted with black. Insects and Food. 

 worms compose the food of the Thrush during the summer, 

 and the animal that inhabits the Helix nemoralls is also a 



