EXPERIMENTS ON BIRDS. 245 



to the destruction, I regret to say, of foster brothers 

 and sisters, for the larger bird was sure to stifle them 

 or heave them from the nest. When the young thrush 

 grew large he was confined in the nest, like a toad in a 

 hole, with only his head protruding for food, it was then 

 curious to see the tiny parents of his adoption clinging 

 to their little moss-made home, while they fed his con- 

 stantly gaping mouth with insects. A misletoe 

 thrush, under whom I put a rook's egp^, without 

 taking away her own, on discovering the dreadful- 

 looking brat she had hatched, seized it at once and 

 flung it out of the nest; and, therefore, in making these 

 exchanges, care should be taken to have the whole sit- 

 ting of one kind. I never knew but one exception as 

 to birds whose natural nest was in a hole, and their 

 not falling out of an open one, and that was when I put 

 some jackdaw's eggs under a blackbird. The blackbird 

 hatched them (to be sure her nest was against a wall, 

 so they were fenced in on one side), and fed them 

 regularly ; and her food, though the bill was diff'erent, 

 seemed to suit them. The old blackbirds were so put 

 to it to support the four young daws, that they were 

 for ever hopping about the lawn in apparent haste, 

 and looking as though they were worn by their un- 

 wonted exertions. One morning on visiting the nest 

 I found all the nestlings dead, and their mouths very 

 dirty, as if they had been fed with clay. Whether or 

 not the patience of the birds had been exhausted by 

 their inordinate craving for food, and as it is reported 

 of the goldfinch, they poisoned them, I cannot say ; the 

 fact is as I tell it. I have never been able to make up 

 my mind as to the well-known legend of the goldfinch. 

 Cottagers and all country people believe that, if they 

 go too often near the young goldfinches in their cage, 



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