The Zoologist— May, 1868. 1189 



from inland. It is rare to see it migrating, except in snow, although 

 its harsh chattering note, and the white under surface of the wings, 

 with the dark breast, make it a conspicuous bird at along distance: 

 the missel thrush, a permanent resident, is often mistaken for it. They 

 seem to suffer intensely from the cold and from hunger : one shot and 

 examined on the 3rd of the month had the crop packed with small 

 stones and a few blades of grass only. On the 1st they were fat and 

 in very good condition ; on the 3rd very poor ; on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd 

 I saw numbers arriving from the east across the Channel : after the 

 fourth day they had quite disappeared, and could not, I think, have 

 weathered another four days of such hardship. 



Thrush. — Thrushes have increased enormously at Dalkey since the 

 snow. They are feeding in company with the fieldfare and redwing 

 in open meadows (unusual situation), but still showing a decided 

 partiality for the bottoms of walls and hedges and the edges of 

 pathways, in search of snails and " lob-worms." Now in earnest, 

 though always doing so, the poor thrush benefits the gardener by 

 picking the large snails from their cosy holes, carrying them to a 

 convenient spot, and, poor fellows, how feebly they often carry their 

 burden, tired from their labours in unearthing, or perhaps from 

 breakiug the tough glue, that bound it in its lair, to a company of its 

 fellows, to break them — another weary job, and one at which I have 

 taken them up exhausted. What a brutal return for all this is the 

 robbery of their nests in the spring, and the fatal gin in the fruit 

 season. Shame on you, gardeners ! I have been greatly struck with 

 the large number of worms frozen and dead to be seen on every path- 

 way and field, any of which that escape the first attack of the thrushes, 

 and snow often falls so rapidly that many are buried under it, give 

 great relief to the poor starving birds when the thaw comes : instead of 

 having to seek it, when most in want Nature spreads a bountiful repast. 

 So great is the bounty and goodness of God. I do not think thrushes 

 arrive from the east in hard weather : 1 have never seen them migrating, 

 but fancy that they come from inland. Fortunately a thaw came on 

 the 5th, but they were quite exhausted and worn out, allowing them- 

 selves to be taken with the hand. Four days and a half had reduced 

 them to this. What must be their destruction in protracted hard 

 weather? The thrush never leaves us, like the redwing and fieldfare, 

 but, on the contrary, increases in numbers with the severity of the 

 weather,— rides out the storm or is shipwrecked. Sunny spots and 

 aspects are their chief haunts in frost and snow, — pleasant in the day 



