THE THRUSH. 9 



tlirushes; for tlicir writers tell of its power to 

 fltren^hen the frame; adding, that if eaten to 

 excess, it could not injure. Horace, as well as 

 f)ther poets, praises the diet. 



As we might infer from the early singing of 

 the thrush, it is an early builder. It usually 

 begins its nest in March, and by the end of 

 April, or the beginning of ^lay, the first brood 

 is ready to U'ave the nest. Although the thrush 

 Bcems to have little notion of protecting itself 

 during the winter from the cold, as it usually 

 roosts, with other small birds, in the open hedges, 

 yet it well knows how to shield its egi^^s and 

 young from the bitter winds of the early spring- 

 time. The nest, which is composed externally of 

 moss and fine roots, has a compact inner surface, 

 lined with a coating of cow-dung and decayed 

 wood, so ingeniously worked in together, as that 

 it will even hold water. This structure is usually 

 placed in some low bush, as the honey-suckle or 

 hawthorn, or in one of the garden cvergi-eens, and 

 contains four or five eggs, of a pale blue gi'ound, 

 with small spots of black. Every schoolboy 

 knows the thrush's Qg^i^, for they may be seen 

 continually strung and hmig up in the farm-house 



