308 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



in a helpless state. This gallant deportment of the males 

 is continued through the whole season of incubation. These 

 birds do not copulate on trees, nor in their nests, but on 

 the ground in the open fields. — White. 



After the first brood of rooks is sufficiently fledged, they 

 all leave their nest trees in the daytime, and resort to sonie 

 distant place in search of food, but return regularly every 

 evening, in vast flights, to their nest trees, where, after 

 flying round several times with much noise and clamour till 

 they are all assembled together, they take up their abode 

 for the nidit. — Markwick. 



THRUSHES. 



Thrushes during long droughts are of great service in 

 hunting out shell-snails, which they pull to pieces for their 

 young, and are thereby very serviceable in gardens. Missel 

 thrushes do not destroy the fruit in gardens like the other 

 species of Turdi, but feed on the berries of mistletoe, and in 

 the spring on ivy berries, which then begin to ripen. In 

 the summer, when their young become fledged, they leave 

 neighbourhoods, and retire to sheep - walks and wild 

 commons. 



The magpies, when they have young, destroy the broods 

 of missel thrushes, though the dams are fierce birds, and 

 fight boldly in defence of their nests. It is probably to 

 avoid such insults that this species of thrush, though wild 

 at other times, delights to build near houses, and in 

 frequented walks and gardens. — White. 



Of the truth of this I have been an eye-witness, having 

 seen the common thrush feeding on the shell-snail. 



I 



