THRUSHES. 209 



more motionless as a stuffed bird. But he knows 

 well what he is about. For, after another moment's 

 pause, having ascertained that all is right, he pecks 

 away with might and main, and soon draws out a 

 fine worm, which his fine sense of hearing had 

 informed him was not far off, and which his hops and 

 previous peckings had attracted to the surface, to 

 escape the approach of what the poor worm thought 

 might be his underground enemy, the mole. But 

 to return to the young Throstles in the shed. In 

 this case the food was not worms, but snails. The 

 old ones brought them in their shells, from which 

 they cleared them, by breaking the shell with a 

 smart knock on the tooth of the harrow, catching the 

 snail, without, in one instance letting it fall. They 

 now and then varied the feast with a few worms, 

 and occasionally with butterflies and moths. As is 

 usual with almost all birds, the old ones were in- 

 variably seen to carry away the dung of the young 

 birds, which might otherwise, by its accumulation, 

 be a great inconvenience. They would, however, be 

 unable to do this, were it not for a curious natural 

 precaution : namely, that the dung of young birds is 

 voided in a thin tenacious bladder or bag, which can 

 be removed without breaking. As the young grew, 

 and required greater supplies, the entrance and re- 

 treat of the old ones through the door was so rapid, 

 that it could scarcely be seen, but was only known 

 by the sound, as they darted over the heads of the 

 men ; another proof of the rapidity of flight, of even 

 the slower flying birds, when urged by necessity. 

 The above fact of Thrushes feeding on shell-fish, 



VOL. I. P 



