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remarks respecting it. (a) What is it made of? if not made

entirely from potatoes too small for the green-grocer, what are

the other ingredients besides alum ? (b) What is to be done


with the crust ? we tried ver}^ hard to devour it both as it was

and in puddings ; but there was too much of it—and we objeCt

to wholesale waste. Nevertheless, where only a few birds are

kept, with the other foods mentioned by Dr. Butler added, it will

do very well.


The artist, in endeavouring to picture the singing male

and the sitting female in the same plate, has, we think, hardly

kept quite true to nature. We have seen a Thrush’s nest high

in a tree sometimes ; but it is quite unusual for the nest to be so

high or the singing bird so low that the two are praCtically at the

same elevation. The female is represented as being “ at home; ”

should any cause for alarm arise, the bird shrinks into her nest

pressing the neck and throat against the inside, the aCtual head

being no longer visible. Five different specimens of the egg are

illustrated, graduating from the rare unspeckled to the opposite

extreme.


Thousands upon thousands of our fellow creatures

scattered far and wide over the Empire will regard Dr. Butler’s

strictures on the song of the Thrush as rank blasphemy; and so

far as the song of the free bird is concerned we heartily sympa¬

thise with them, for surely every Britisher looks upon the song

of the Thrush as part of his birthright, and outside the range of

criticism.


In every one who has ever been a country boy, the

mention of the Redwing and Fieldfare must ever awaken

pleasing reminiscences of the Christmas holidays, the frost and

snow, the favourite old gun, and the spoils of the chase served

up so much more toothsomely than was ever a Partridge in later

years. Dr. Butler tells us of none of these things, and hurts our

feelings accordingly. We doubt if shooting at higher game when

we grew older and more satiated ever produced the same real

pleasure as did the sport afforded by the Fieldfare and Redwing

with an occasional Missel Thrush, Wild Pigeon, and the like,

except, indeed, when we were given a terrier of our very own

and were allowed to hunt the hedge-rows for rabbits. Of the

two, the Redwing has been by far the most common in every

part of the country we have visited during the winter months;

compared with the Fieldfare, moreover, it is a tame bird ; and it

happened, consequently, that we used to “ pocket ” (we cannot

say “bag,” but then we had prop£r gamekeeper’s pockets) quite



