76 BROWN BIRDS WITH SPOTTED BREASTS. 



THROSTLE— Plate 33. Length, 9 inches. Upper 

 parts olive-brown ; sides of face and under parts yel- 

 lowish, thickly spotted with dark brown ; a pure- 

 white spot in the middle of the breast. Resident. 



Eggs. — 4-6, bright greenish-blue, glossy, spotted 

 sparingly with sharply defined markings of black or 

 brown; I'Ox -78 inch (plate 124). 



Nest. — Of dried grass, plastered inside with clay, 

 cow-dung, and rotten wood, and placed in hedges, 

 evergreens, against ivy-clad trunks and branches, 

 and in hollows of walls and stream-banks, &e. 



Distribution. — General. 



This is the common ' Thrush,' which remains with 

 us in greater or less numbers the year round. It is 

 a constant visitor to our gardens during the hard 

 weather, sneaking through the hedge-bottom, and 

 drawing itself up ' at attention ' ere hopping forward 

 on to the grass. Pausing, with head tilted to one 

 side, it awaits motionlessly some indication of the 

 presence of a worm, and when it is given, darts upon 

 the worm, and stands back with uplifted head in 

 drawing it from its hole. If disturbed the bird darts 

 under the first shrub, or stands, rigidly attentive, until 

 satisfied that danger is past. When startled it flies 

 to cover with a sharp ' Tcheek ! tcheek ! ' Although 

 a skulker in shrubberies, the Throstle is for the most 

 part a bird of the open, and a ground feeder in 

 meadows and ploughed lands. There, dotted about 

 the fields, the birds seek the latent worm, their erect 

 posture always suggestive of keen attention. This 

 upstanding attitude lends the Throstle, when seen 

 nearly, an air of defiance, to which the moustachial 



