XIII 



ON 26th April 1916 I watched a thrush putting the 

 A Thrush's finishing touches to her new nest, plastering 

 Ne8t- the inside of it with the regulation mud. 

 It was a pretty picture, for the bird had chosen 

 a bush of the Himalayan Rhododendron arboreum, 

 which was well set with rose-coloured trusses. I have 

 described the building material as mud : Yarrell and 

 most other writers on ornithology specify clay ; but in 

 this case the architect would have had to fly a long 

 way to find anything stiff enough to be called clay, and 

 probably she (or he) was using the ordinary light soil 

 of the flower-borders. The plumage of the song-thrush 

 is so much alike in male and female that it was im- 

 possible to decide whether it was the cock or the hen 

 bird that was at work. 



The weather at the time was exceedingly dry, and 

 so, consequently, was the surface of the soil. This gave 

 rise to speculation how the bird managed to moisten 

 the dry earth to fit it for her purpose. There was no 

 water at hand ; yet when I put my hand into the nest, 

 the walls felt quite wet. The first egg was laid four 

 days later on 30th April. It seems probable that the 



