THE SONG-THRUSH. 277 



variations in size : those which inhabit the high grounds are 

 smaller than the tenants of the richer pastures. 



The thrush is so familiar a bird everywhere, that there 

 are few to whom any description of it is necessary. It does 

 not like marshes, or countries that are very open and bare ; 

 but in all places where hedges, thickets, and young planta- 

 tions, or even orchards and gardens with trees, are to be 

 found, there are sure to be thrushes. They feed on slugs, 

 worms, and snails, of the last of which they destroy vast 

 numbers, but they are not so exclusively confined to the 

 districts in which the larger species of snails abound as the 

 missel-thrushes. They are found in many upland parts 

 where shelled mollusca are few and confined to the smaller 

 species : and in those, snails and earthworms are their chief 

 food in the early summer ; and as the season advances, they 

 have recourse to wild berries the whortleberry in preference 

 to any of the others. The soils where that thrives best are 

 generally well suited for plantations or natural copses ; and 

 copses there are sure to be inhabited by thrushes. In winter 

 the birds come down to the warmer lands, and beat about 

 under the hedges and in the gardens. 



In the richer districts, their labours in destroying snails 

 are equally incessant and successful. Before these have 

 opened the window curtain which they spread over the mouth 

 of the shell, so as to completely exclude the air during the 

 time that they are dormant, the thrushes and their associates 

 the blackbirds find them out in their hiding-places, and by 

 this means do great service to the winter and early spring 

 crops, especially in those places where culinary vegetables 

 are much cultivated. In these places the snails nestle by 

 hundreds, under the hedges, and by the foundations of the 

 walls. In the former, which is their favourite winter abode, 

 the hedge preserves them in a great measure from the rain, 

 and the dry leaves from the cold ; but so industriously do 



