THRUSHES. 269 



which command the horizon all round. It will often occupy 

 one of these for hours, though people are at work around it ; 

 and its habit is to dash at the insects, capture them, and 

 return to its perch, all in perfect silence. 



The time when the early cherries and berries begin to 

 ripen is one at which flies throng to the gardens; and as it 

 is also the time at which the broods usually take wing, and 

 feed with great activity, the birds are very numerous and 

 active among the trees. They are then actually preserving 

 the fruit from myriads of insect destroyers; but they have 

 been (as is not unfrequently the case with birds) accused of 

 perpetrating the very mischief which it is the business of 

 their lives to prevent, and because some one called it the 

 " cherry-sucker," the consequence is, that the bird is very 

 often driven off, in order that the choicest of the fruit may 

 be spoiled by the wasps and flies. This bird has little 

 or no note, save a chirp. It comes, performs its appointed 

 labour, and goes peaceably ; but it is one of the birds that 

 accompany cultivation, and become more numerous as that 

 extends. 



THRUSHES (Turdus). 



The thrushes are the largest of all the British insectivorous 

 birds : those which remain permanently with us are among 

 the most mellow-toned of our wild songsters ; the whole 

 are very interesting in their manners, and, when in proper 

 condition, they are wholesome and palatable food. Though 

 the thrushes have a melodious song, of which the omnivorous 

 birds are wholly destitute, their alarm note partakes a little 

 of the scream of these, and, like them, they can be taught to 

 articulate, though not quite so readily, or with so much per- 

 fection. They have the bill of mean length, a little curved, 

 bent at the tip, and with a notch in the upper mandible; and 

 their whole plumage is close and compact, so that they dart 



