142 Countrymen's Nature Lore 



among them sufficiently fixed to warrant their 

 separation into two varieties or races, though the 

 contrary has been maintained by some naturalists ; 

 and there is even less ground for the belief that 

 their difference in size has any connexion with 

 their nesting place. In some parts of the western 

 counties, again, the countryfolk believe in the 

 existence of a third species of nesting thrush, besides 

 the missel-thrush and song-thrush. This is de- 

 scribed as being smaller than the song-thrush, and 

 is called the rene-thrush, from its supposed habit 

 of haunting the sides of the slowly flowing renes 

 or " rhines " which intersect the marshes and 

 meadows of the lower Severn Valley. The rene- 

 thrush is held to be a kind of song-thrush, but an 

 even sweeter singer. When the cottage boys wish 

 to take a young thrush for the cage, they hunt 

 among the thorns and willows beside the water- 

 courses till they are satisfied they have found a 

 rene-thrush's nest. They then tether the legs of 

 the young birds with strings to the nest or the 

 twigs supporting it, so that they may not fly before 

 they are old enough to be reared easily by hand. 

 In some parts, too, the name of " cane," often 

 applied to the weasel, is restricted to an imaginary 

 species supposed to be smaller than the true 

 weasel, as the rene-thrush is smaller than the 

 song-thrush. 



The countryman's imperfect knowledge of natural 

 history is shown more clearly by the comparatively 

 small number of names which do duty for the 

 animals and birds that haunt his own paths and 



