5002 Tur ZooLtocisr—Juty, 1876. 
than to see this most pretty bird flitting from bough to bough in pursuit of 
insect-food as one takes a ramble during a fine summer morning in some 
hilly wooded district. Its song is short, sweet, without much compass or 
variety, and is very similar to the redstart’s—in fact, it is often confounded 
with it until one gets fully acquainted with it. Unlike the spotted flycatcher 
in its manners, when it is chasing insects, it does not return to the bough 
or twig from which it started, but very frequently flies to the hole in the 
tree selected for its nest, sometimes to the ground, picks something up, and 
then perhaps flies off to a considerable distance—for what purpose I am 
unable to explain, but J have noticed it repeatedly.—. P. P. Butterfield ; 
Wilsden, Bradford, May 9, 1876. 
Mottled Blackbirds.—A friend of mine has shot two pied blackbirds in 
this neighbourhood. One of them has a white head; the rest of the 
plumage is of the ordinary colour. The other is a beautiful bird, having 
the head and rump perfectly white, and all the under plumage beautifully 
mottled. The latter bird visited a particular street (which abuts upon an 
extensive garden) very frequently last winter in search of food; in fact, it 
appeared to live amongst us in a semi-domesticated state. Both were male 
birds, and apparently very old.—Id.; May 22, 1876. 
Thrush laying in a Deserted Nest.—A few days ago I saw a thrush fly 
out of a willow tree: thinking that it might have a nest, I peeped in, and 
saw three eggs lying upon the top of a very old and decayed nest. I think 
there can be.no doubt that, her nest having been taken, she was fain to de- 
posit her remaining eggs in the best place obtainable—C. Matthew Prior. 
Note on the Song Thrush.—With ‘regard to the manner in which the 
song thrush extracts the snail from its shell, Mr. Sclater expresses a doubt 
(S. S. 4817) as to the bird fixing the shell and then using its bill, after the 
manner of a pickaxe, to break up the snail’s only protection. My observations 
certainly are in favour of the doubt expressed, and I have often seen the song 
thrush feeding, but never in the manner described in the quotation upon 
which Mr. Sclater comments. From what I have seen, the thrush often takes 
hold of the snail, or the edge of the snail-shell, in its beak, and beats it to 
pieces against a stone or some other hard substance, the sound of which 
may be heard at some distance; but this is undoubtedly well known to 
every reader of the ‘ Zoologist’ who has taken a walk near a hedge-bank in 
the winter time, where a number of the bleached, broken and empty shells 
may often be seen near the stone against which they were broken, so that it 
is quite possible the thrush resorts to the same spot from time to time. 
People who keep thrushes in captivity seem to understand this, since they 
put a stone in the cage, and the instinct of the bird teaches it to avail itself 
of the accommodation thus provided. If a portion of the snail protrudes 
from the partially-smashed shell, the thrush at once seizes it, and proceeds 
with the operation of ‘breaking up,” until sometimes the snail-shell is 
