104 Wild Life in Wales 



bird music is sweeter than the Merle's full note, which, 

 as Grahame says, 



cc Melliferous, rich, deep-toned, fills all the vale, 

 And charms the ravished ear." 



The writer will never forget a good old North-country 

 dominie who loved it so that the only time he was ever known 

 to accept a boy's excuses for being late for morning school, 

 was once, when the happy thought struck the culprit to plead 

 that he " had lingered by the bush just to hear the Blackie 

 singing," and escaped without punishment ; though, boy- 

 like, he afterwards boasted to his companions that it was to 

 rob the nest he had tarried ! 



Skelton in his Philip Sparrow well distinguished between 

 the songs of the Missel Thrush and Song Thrush when he 

 wrote : 



" The threstill with her warblynge, 

 The mavis with her whistell." 



But Mavis, though commonly applied to both birds in 

 North Britain, is most usually given to the smaller species, 

 " Big Mavis " denoting the Missel Thrush. In French the 

 name is Mauvis, in Spanish Malms. Throstle is Anglo-Saxon, 

 and is still in common use in many parts. In Germany 

 we have DrosseL Another Anglo-Saxon name, Thrysce, 

 almost exactly represents the pronunciation of Thrush in 

 parts of the West of England, and not inaptly in Wales 

 also. 



Like all its allies, the Thrush is a notorious eater of small 

 fruits, and is, on that account, generally disliked by the 

 gardener, regardless of the fact that for more than half of 

 the year its food consists almost entirely of worms, slugs, 

 snails, and other creatures that, collectively, do him infinitely 

 more harm. In fact, for about nine months out of the 

 twelve, the Thrush does nothing but good, and even in 

 summer is only a partial thief, for it has been said that if 

 a ripe strawberry and a snail be placed before a hungry 

 Thrush at any time, it will be the latter that is taken first. 

 To all who grow no small fruits, the bird is nothing but 



