70 BIEDS 



A THEUSH'S NEST 



As a regular reader of your paper for more than thirty 

 years, I know what interest you take in questions of 

 natural history, and I am sure you will be interested in 

 the following story. About half a mile from where I now 

 write is a railway crossing ; close by is a signal-box and 

 a signal-post with two arms and two platforms. On the 

 lower of these platforms, close up to the post, a thrush 

 built her nest. Twice during the day a man has to go 

 on to this platform to attend to the lamps, and during 

 the last few weeks the arms of the signal were painted. 

 From 5 a.m. until midnight nearly two hundred trains 

 pass on each week-day and seventy on Sunday ; yet in 

 spite of these apparent drawbacks the bird hatched and 

 reared five young ones, the last of which left the nest 

 two days ago. The men who worked the box took the 

 greatest interest in the plucky bird, and the whereabouts 

 of the nest was widely known ; yet no attempt at dis- 

 turbance was made. I understand that the bird fre- 

 quently allowed the regular attendant to the lamps to 

 come on to the platform without moving, but if a stranger 

 came she left at once and took refuge in a neighbouring 

 tree. I was passing on one such occasion, and she gave 

 audible evidence of her anxiety. Does this mean that 

 she could distinguish one man from another ? 



H. MATH WIN. 



June 6, 1908. 



NOTE. Judging by an experience of my own, I have 

 little doubt that she could distinguish one man from 

 another. Two pairs of blue tits nested in my London 

 garden in 1920, and got so used to me that they would 

 fly in and out of the nesting-boxes with my head leaning 

 against them. But if a stranger came into the garden 

 they would only come into their cottages from shopping 

 after he had been in the garden for some little time and 

 stood quite still at a distance, 



