136 MEKULIDiE. 



place near the summit of the noble promontory of Fairhead. 

 One or two pairs are said to inhabit the island of Bathlm,* a 

 similar locality. Mr. Macgillivray, who gives a long and good 

 account of the thrush, mentions it as abundant in the Hebrides, 

 where it may be heard singing from the pinnacles of the rocks. 

 B. B. vol. ii. p. 130. 



This bird breeds early in the north of Ireland; sometimes in 

 the month of March, and not uncommonly before the middle 

 of April, incubation has commenced. The favourite sites chosen 

 for the nest are ever-green shrubs, young trees, and beech hedges, 

 yet even where these abound, the thrush not unfrequently prefers 

 placing it in the holes of walls and beneath the roof of sheds. In 

 one of the latter situations, I knew a pair to build on the top 

 of the wall just beneath the slates, for three successive summers. 

 The nest was exposed to view from every part of the house which, 

 too, was in the midst of shrubberies and plantations. The site was 

 such as the swallow would select, and similar to one I have known 

 the robin appropriate to itself in a yard in Belfast. Thrushes' nests 

 at the Falls are sometimes placed among moss on ditch-banks 

 overshadowed by ferns (Aspidii) or the rank hemlock. A nest in 

 a pear-tree in the garden there, near to which is a hay-loft, was with 

 the exception of its inner clay coating, constructed entirely of hay. 

 A relative, who has attended to the nidification of birds, once 

 found the nest of a thrush containing five eggs, on the ground in 

 a meadow at Wolf-hill, — a place with grass about two feet high 

 waving over it. This place abounded in such situations as are 

 usually selected. Of four nests observed there in one season, two 

 were in the holes of walls ; a third was built among ivy against 

 a wall, and the fourth beneath the roof of a small out-house : — 

 a favourite place, always chosen when the opportunity offered, 

 was among heaps of the small branches of trees lying on the 

 ground in a corner of the garden, and ready for use as pea-rods. 

 In a garden a few miles distant, the blackbird took possession of 

 heaps of similar branches for its nest. 



* Dr. J. D. Marshall. 



