30 THE BIRDS OF OUR RAMBLES. 



Blackbird. The great difference is in the lining. 

 Both nests are made the same and of similar 

 materials until the mud is inserted. Then, instead 

 of dry grass, the Song Thrush lines her home 

 with damp rotten wood, obtained from old fences 

 and fallen branches, and on this the eggs are laid 

 before it is dry. Indeed, the heat from the sitting 

 bird usually bakes this cake of kneaded wood 

 hard and solid as the incubation of the eggs pro- 

 gresses. These are four or five in number, a 

 trifle smaller than the Blackbird's, and beautiful 

 turquoise-blue, spotted chiefly at the larger end 

 with blackish brown and pale gray. The Thrush 

 sits closely, often with bill wide open ; but when 

 scared from her nest she generally becomes very 

 noisy and demonstrative. Two broods are fre- 

 quently reared during the season, but never in 

 the same nest. The Thrush is not quite so 

 solitary as the Blackbird, but never becomes what 

 we can call gregarious. 



From the Song Thrush we pass to the 

 widely MISSEL-THRUSH (T. viscivorus). He resembles 

 buted< the Song Thrush in general appearance, but his 

 larger size, warier disposition, and the extreme 

 harshness and persistency of his call-notes, are 

 good points of distinction. Curiously enough he 

 is silent when the other Thrushes are most full of 

 music, and he warbles his loud, free song most 

 frequently between the months of September and 

 March. He is without exception the wariest of the 

 Thrushes, most often seen flying about the trees 

 in the park, and only drawing to the shrubberies, 

 and gardens when about to rear his young. 

 During autumn and winter he is more or less 

 gregarious, and is then often met with on the 



