214 BRITISH BIRDS. 



expect to find the Song-Thrush. Like that bird, his favourite haunt is the 

 bright glossy foliage of evergreens. Amongst the wild scenery of the High- 

 lands the Song-Thrush gladdens the moorland wastes, and his varied 

 melody is often heard amidst the mountains. 



The Song-Thrush is a skulking bird, although not perhaps so much so 

 as the Blackbird. It is extremely fond of hiding under dense thickets and 

 the broad close foliage of evergreens where the branches sweep the ground. 

 It is here the birds obtain much of their food ; and in some cases regular 

 paths are made through the dense underwood, especially behind walls or 

 hedgerows, which often put you in mind of a weasel's " run." Indeed the 

 Song-Thrush is, of all other birds, perhaps the most frequently caught in 

 the " figure of four" traps set for weasels, owing to its peculiar habit of 

 hopping under the brushwood. Like the Blackbird, it is flushed with diffi- 

 culty when in these situations, and always prefers to hop quickly along the 

 ground rather than take wing. AVhen flushed it flies rapidly away, and 

 alights suddenly, as though anxious to enter the nearest suitable cover 

 and hide itself as quickly as possible. The Song-Thrush is more often seen 

 above the tree-tops than the Blackbird, and will take long and rapid flights 

 to and from its feeding-grounds at some elevation, seldom uttering a note. 

 It becomes unusually vociferous towards evening ; and its chattering cry is 

 heard well into the night. Autumn, or, perhaps, still more in the last few 

 fine days before winter fairly sets in, its garrulity is the greatest. Then 

 in the wooded depths of his roosting-place you hear his sharp cry, almost 

 like the noise made by a ratchet-drill, which he keeps up as he flits from 

 place to place long after it begins to be dark, and when most other birds 

 have retired to rest. Upon the ground the Song-Thrush proceeds in a 

 series of hops, seldom if ever running or walking. His attitude when in 

 the act of listening intently is with the wings drooping slightly, tail almost 

 horizontal, and head slightly raised ; but he never elevates his tail upon 

 alighting like the Blackbird. 



More than twenty years ago Professor Newton endeavoured to show in 

 the pages of the 'Ibis' (1860, p. 83) that the Song-Thrush was a regular 

 migratory bird in Great Britain. My own observations as well as those of 

 Dixon and others confirm this theory. This fact has been overlooked by 

 most British writers ; but continental naturalists class the bird as a regular 

 migrant. In our own country, as soon as the days of summer decline and 

 autumnal tints appear in the landscape, the Song-Thrush is seen in little 

 companies ; and as autumn passes away, and the fogs and chilly nights of 

 November arrive, the birds nearly all take their departure, and where they 

 once swarmed only one or two solitary individuals are to be seen. The Rivelin 

 valley, a few miles from Sheffield, is annually the scene of an unmista- 

 kable migration of the Song-Thrush. Late in autumn the birds for a few 

 days literally swarm in the Rivelin copses, where at all other times of 



