322 Timehri, 



In many respects, indeed, it is nearer the black-bird than the English 

 thrush despite its colour. It is slightly larger, being seven or eight inches 

 in length and is a little fuller in body It is the plainest of plain birds, 

 the prevailing colour being earthy brown, inclined to red on back and 

 wings, greyish on the breast, and fading into white on the vent ; hence 

 its ungainly scientific name " White-vented-thrush." The throat is white 

 with downward streaks of brown ; the under- wing coverts are light russet- 

 red ; the iris of the large, prominent eye. is reddish brown. The sexes are 

 alike. Young thrushes have spots of darker colour upon their breast, 

 which fade away when they approach maturity. Hence perhaps has 

 arisen the deeply-rooted conviction that the colony thrush is descended 

 from English parents imported into the colony some fifty years ago. 

 This, perhaps, and the fact that there is nothing peculiarly tropical about 

 albiventer. Like our English kingfisher, it seems to have strayed out of 

 its proper lattitude. 



This colony thrush is semi-domesticated, frequenting our gardens 

 and building its conspicuous nest in accessible places, such for instance as 

 the top of the pillars that support our dwellings in this mosquito zone. 

 The nest is like that of our blackbird, though not so neatly made, and 

 the eggs, two in number, are hardly distinguishable from that same black 

 relative. No one seems to keep the thrush in a cage. I have a pair 

 which I reared from the nest : but they are not tame now, dashing about 

 the cage like mad-caps when I approach ; and. screaming at the top of 

 their voices, they peck, tight and struggle when I take them in my hand. 

 But they feed well and are healthy. I had hoped better things and more 

 intelligence from them, for w 7 hen they were barely reared themselves, one 

 of them would feed some rudder- tails, a little younger, which for con- 

 venience I had put into their cage. But Dame Nature has given all 

 young birds an irresistibly appealing cry when they are hungry ; and 

 when are they not ? These thrushes are very pugnacious among them- 

 selves, and no bird of equal or smaller size can be kept in the same cage. 

 The pair I have, reared together, although not from the same nest, have 

 occasionally terrific- encounters, first one and then the other gaining the 

 ascendency.* 



There is another thrush very like this, called the grey-breasted thrush: 

 but I hope to write about that in a subsequent article. It may be 

 distinguished from this by its under-w r ings which are grey, and not russet- 

 red. 



The God-Bird. 



Even more familiar in its semi-domesticated habits than the thrush, 

 is the charming little colony wren yclept the God-bird (Troglodytes 

 musculus). It receives its generic name (Greek, one who creeps into 

 holes) from its habit of making its nest in holes and crevices ; and its 



* NOTE. — Since writing the above one of these thrushes has come to a tragic end. 

 As they were always lighting I separated them. Accidentally I left open the door of 

 the cage of the hen. A wild thrush got in, the door slipped down, the birds fought. I 

 returned to find my poor hen literally scalped and the intruder with its beak broken. 



