34 MERULINJE. 



in its cage, it is amusing to witness its efforts to break it, 

 the snail-shell being held by the bill, and struck repeatedly on 

 the nearest hard substance, in most cases to the detriment of 

 sundry earthen vessels. This species, when pursued by rapto- 

 rial birds, familiarly seeks a refuge in the habitations of man. 



Poets may eulogize, and dwell with rapture on the love- 

 sick strains of the "Bulbul of eastern tales," as, perching on 

 her favourite thorn, she pours to "Night's dull ear" her 

 matchless melody, subduing the ardent imagery of the volup- 

 tuous and effeminate oriental ; travellers may extol the mag- 

 nificent and wondrous melody of the u Mocking-bird of the 

 far West," when, from some primeval pine of her native wilds, 

 she momentarily gladdens the proud yet bursting heart of 

 the stoical wanderer of the prairie, when sadly and finally 

 regarding the furrowed and whitened relics of his fathers, ere 

 he takes for his last route the direction of the setting sun : 

 but equally privileged as the denizens of those climes go to 

 our lonely wilds of the west, where the grey mists hang over 

 the heath-clad hills where the blackened crags frown in 

 eternal defiance over the foaming Atlantic where stand our 

 mystical round towers, whose origin is wrapped in the mists 

 of ages, and there listen with attuned thought to the wild 

 and varied melody of the thrush, as, poured from the summit 

 of some lichened rock, it is wafted by the perfumed breeze to 

 the attent ear, allaying by its magic influence the empty as- 

 pirations of ambition, and diffusing over the humbled soul 

 sweet thoughts of empyreal brightness, till, forgetful of earth, 

 the enfranchised spirit is insensibly wafted, and soars to where 

 the speckled warbler addresses its evening hymn. And, oh ! 

 when awakening from that dream of unalloyed bliss and hap- 

 piness, how the chilled and seared spirit recoils from entering 

 again the precincts of a distrustful world ! Yet all have their 

 separate charms. An almighty and beneficent Providence has 

 placed peculiar pleasures in every clime, to minister to our 

 happiness, and soothe our earthly woes. 



Indigenous. 



SPECIES 33. WHITE'S THRUSH. 



Turdus Whitii. Eyton. 

 Merle a White, Temm. 



THROUGH the critical knowledge of Dr. Allman, Professor of 

 Botany, Trinity College, Dublin, a single specimen of this 

 species, so extremely rare in any continent, has been added 

 to our Fauna, in the instance of one obtained in the winter of 



