THBTJSH. 185 



bird and the liquid name of the editor of the Delphin edition 

 of Horace. A somewhat similar classical likeness has been 

 recorded in the reference to the note of the Blue Titmouse, 

 and the 'Pleasures of Memory' will at all events, I feel 

 assured, be allowed to plead in excuse of the comparison, even 

 if the resemblance be not so striking to all minds as it is 

 to mine, and I doubt not is also to those of some of my 

 old schoolfellows. 



The Thrush begins to sing so early as from one to two 

 o'clock in the long midsummer mornings. It may be taught 

 to whistle many tunes and waltzes with great precision. It 

 sometimes sings while sitting on the nest. When perched 

 upon a tree, whether it be a high or a low one, it is almost 

 always at or near the top that the strain is uttered. 



Nidification commences the latter end of March, and the 

 eggs are deposited earlier or later in April, though sometimes 

 not until May, according to the season. Nests have been 

 known to have been begun even so early as the middle of 

 February, but frost caused them to be deserted. They are 

 correspondingly able to fly from the latter end of April to 

 the middle of June, and have been known to have been 

 hatched even on the last day of March. A second brood is 

 generally reared in the season, and if one set of eggs is 

 destroyed, a second is produced in a fortnight,, or even a 

 third if need be. The female is extremely attentive to her 

 charge, and will sit on the nest until quite closely approached, 

 and will sometimes suffer herself to be taken sooner than 

 forsake it. If you disturb and alarm her, she will testify her 

 anxiety by flying round you with ruffled feathers and outspread 

 tail, uttering a note of alarm, and violently snapping the 

 bill. If unmolested, both birds have been known to pick up 

 crumbs of bread thrown down to them, and to give them to 

 their young. 



Mr. Macgillivray had a male Thrush, which when only six 

 weeks old, brought up a brood of half-fledged Larks ; and also 

 fed a young Cuckoo with the most tender care and anxiety. 

 The Thrush was however repaid with the most base ingratitude 

 by his thankless protege, for after he had taught it to feed 

 itself, it repeatedly attacked its benefactor, and would scarcely 

 even allow him to partake of the least atom of food. Another, 

 also a young bird, kept in a cage with a young Blackbird 

 by a gentleman in the city of Norwich, having soon learned 

 to feed itself, undertook the care of its companion, which it 



