i83


we have found them so low that we could almost touch the out¬

side by standing on tip-toe, and once within easy reach of a tall

man, but never in such a position that the inside could be

inspected without a climb, although often a very tiny climb.

Four specimens of the egg are illustrated, but we miss the most

beautiful which these birds lay and which we have occasionally

taken—of an intensely red-brown colour, the blotches as it were

so bountifully “running” as to stain the entire surface with a

rich deep red.


Passing on to the Song Thrush, Dr. Butler gives some

interesting particulars of the movements of the bird, movements

familiar enough to any of our country cousins who may happen

to have a bit of a lawn in front of the breakfast-room window ;

and yet how few of us are sufficiently close observers to be able

to describe in writing what w r e have so often seen ! Concerning

the nests commenced early in the spring, we hardly feel inclined

to agree that they are pulled to pieces by the birds (the original

builders) themselves, or that the birds are playing at nesting.

The nest is more or less completed ; and then the birds wait for

a longer or shorter time according to the season—sometimes for

so long that one may naturally regard it as forsaken ; but one

day an egg appears, and all goes well if there be not undue

meddling on the part of the watcher. We have not ever known

an earl) 7 nest deserted without special cause ; but these are often

built conspicuously in a thorn hedge or similar place, before a

single leaf has come out to hide them, and idle hands are care¬

lessly thrust in, the nest injured or too frequently inspected, and

consequently deserted. An almost certain find for an early nest

in some counties (and positions of nests of many birds vary ex¬

ceedingly according to the opportunities offered) not mentioned

by Dr. Butler, is a young holly bush consisting of a single

upright stem some seven or eight feet high, in a plantation of

deciduous trees, growing near to or actually in the boundary

hedge.


In the Bird Papers, the unfortunate gentlemen who are

asked times without number how to feed a Thrush in captivity

have to answer the question over and over again until they seem

to be on the verge of despair, or of losing their tempers; Dr.

Butler comes to the rescue, and by recommending a food will

doubtless lighten their labours, and let us hope save the lives

of a few out of the thousands of birds which are annually

slaughtered by the administration of improper food. We have

ourselves tried crumb of bread as a basis of the food for our

insectivorous birds generally, and we feel moved to make two



