BIRDS IN CORNISH VILLAGE 277 



fly into the house and feed on the dining-room 

 table. Her thrush paired and bred for several 

 seasons in the garden, and the young, too, were 

 tame and would follow their mother into the 

 house to be fed. The male was wild and too shy 

 ever to venture in. She noticed the first year that 

 it had a wing-feather which stuck out, owing 

 probably to a malformation of the socket. Each 

 year after the breeding season the male vanished, 

 the female remaining alone through the winter 

 months, but in spring the male came back the 

 same bird with the unmistakable projecting wing- 

 feather. Yet it was certain that this bird had 

 gone quite away, otherwise he would have re- 

 turned to the garden, where there was food in 

 abundance during the spells of frosty weather. 

 As he did not appear it is probable that he 

 migrated each autumn to some warmer climate be- 

 yond the sea. 



I have noticed that wagtails, thrushes, black- 

 birds, and some other species when the young are 

 out of the nest, divide the brood between male 

 and female and go different ways and spend the 

 daylight hours at a distance apart, each attending 

 to the one or two young birds in its charge. 



