406 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



tarsus 29-31, bill from skull 20-22 (12 measured). $ wing 113-119. 

 Primaries : 1st 8-14 mm. shorter than primary-coverts, 3rd and 

 4th longest (4th occasionally 1 mm. shorter), 2nd 3-6 shorter, 5th 

 5-7 shorter, 6th 15-19 shorter ; 3rd to 5th emarginated outer webs. 

 Outermost tail-feathers very slightly shorter than rest, 12 feathers. 

 Other structure as in White's Thrush. 



Soft parts. Bill black-brown, base of lower mandible yellow ; 

 legs and feet yellowish-brown ; iris dark brown. 



CHARACTERS. No subspecies. Prominent eye-stripe, chestnut 

 under-wing and want of chestnut on primaries and secondaries 

 and upper wing-coverts (see T. eunomus) distinguish it from other 

 British Thrushes. 



FIELD -CHARACTERS. Size of Song-Thrush but readily distinguished 

 by broad buffish-white superciliary stripe and chestnut-red flanks 

 and axillaries. Gregarious like Fieldfare, with which it often 

 consorts. Call -note, a whispered " seep," often reveals migrating 

 birds after dark in October and November and again in March and 

 April. Real song, resembling that of Song-Thrush but sweeter, 

 never heard in this country, but flocks babble in chorus in tree-tops 

 on sunny days, a subdued warble punctuated by fluty " trui." 



BREEDING-HABITS. Though sometimes breeding close to Fieldfare 

 colonies it is net sociable in breeding-habits, nesting in trees, bushes, 

 stumps, or often on banks and broken ground. Nest. Built of 

 grasses, twigs and earth, lined grasses and sometimes a few lichens 

 or bits of moss on outside. Eggs. 5-6, with greenish ground and 

 usually fine markings of reddish-brown, considerably smaller than 

 those of most Turdidce. Average of 50 eggs, 25.8 X 18.7 mm. Breed- 

 ing-season. Most eggs are laid in June and July, but also in latter 

 half May : double brooded. Incubation. 14-15 days, chiefly at any 

 rate by female, but relieved by male about mid-daj^. Fledging- 

 period. Young leave nest in 11-14 days, before they are fully 

 feathered. 



FOOD. Worms, mollusca (snails, including Helix aspersa, slugs, 

 Limax and Arion, and lacustrine mollusca), insects (coleoptera, 

 larvae of lepidoptera and diptera, orthoptera, etc.), and on sea-shore, 

 Crustacea, etc. Also berries of hawthorn, yew, rowan, holly, 

 Vaccinium, etc., and on Continent grapes in autumn. 



DISTRIBUTION. British Isles. Winter-visitor and passage-migrant 

 (mid-Sept, to April and mid-May. Early dates Aug. 11, Cumber- 

 land, Aug. 26, co. Down. Late dates June 1, Fair Isle, June 9, 

 Northumberland, July 5, Cumberland). Generally distributed. 



MIGRATIONS. British leles. Similar to those of the Fieldfare. 



DISTRIBUTION. Abroad. Breeding in north Europe and north 

 Asia, including Iceland, south in Europe to north-east corner of 



