THRUSHES. 97 



the little architect to lay it on so very smoothly, 

 with no other implement besides its narrow 

 pointed bill. It would indeed puzzle any of our 

 best workmen to work so uniformly smooth with 

 such a tool ; but from the frame being nicely pre- 

 pared, and by using only small pellets at a time, 

 which are spread out with the upper part of the 

 bill, the work is rendered somewhat easier. 



" This wall being finished, the birds employ for 

 the inner coating little short slips of rotten wood, 

 chiefly that of the willow ; and these are firmly 

 glued on with the game salivary cement, while 

 they are bruised flat at the same time, so as to 

 correspond with the smoothness of the surface 

 over which they are laid. This final coating, 

 however, is seldom extended so high as the first, 

 and neither of them is carried quite to the brim 

 of the nest ; the birds thinking it enough to bring 

 their masonry near to the twisted band of grass, 

 which forms the mouth. The whole wall, when 

 finished, is not much thicker than pasteboard, and 

 though hard, tough, and water-tight, is more 

 warm and comfortable than at first view might 

 appear; and admirably calculated for protecting 

 the eggs or young from the bleak winds which 

 prevail in the early part of the spring, when the 

 Song-Thrush breeds."* 



The nest of this bird is usually built in a thick 

 bush, often an evergreen, as a holly, or in the 

 midst of a clustering ivy ; and these are selected, 

 doubtless, because at the early season at which 

 the Thrush builds, the deciduous trees and hedges 

 have not yet put out their foliage, and conse- 

 quently do not afford the needful concealment. 



* Arch, of Birds, p. 125. 



