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" The Song Thrush, which is a resident species, is distributed over all parts of Scotland and 

 England. In summer it prefers the woods and hill-sides, the bushy banks of streams, and 

 sheltered places at some distance from human habitations, although in cultivated districts it 

 often nestles in the orchards, gardens, and hedges. In winter the individuals which had made 

 the woods and glens their summer residence approach the houses, and feed in the gardens and 

 fields, or betake themselves to the rocky shores, where they find subsistence by breaking the whelks 

 and other shell-fish. 



" Although in the cultivated districts it is seldom seen, unless among the bushes or hedges, 

 it is capable of flying to a great distance, which it does in gentle curves, with quick flaps, 

 intermitted at intervals, sometimes at a considerable height, but more frequently only so high as 

 to clear the trees. Its flight is always rapid ; and it selects its place with quickness, settling 

 instantaneously. 



" When on the ground, and in the attitude of observation, it droops its wings a little, keeps 

 its tail nearly horizontal, and raises its head obliquely. On observing a worm or other object, it 

 leaps briskly towards it, picks it up, or, if it has withdrawn, pecks at the earth until it has seized 

 it. Its general mode of progression on the ground is by leaping. "When in a listless mood it 

 droops the tail and wings, draws in its neck, and ruffles its feathers. In this attitude it may 

 often be seen perched on a tree, bush, or stone. 



" Its food is chiefly found on the ground, and consists of snails, earthworms, larva?, coleoptera, 

 hips, berries, and seeds of various kinds. Helix aspersa, hortensis, and nemoralis supply a great 

 part of its food in winter. It breaks the shells by raising them in its bill and knocking them 

 repeatedly against a stone. Large heaps of the shells thus broken may be seen by garden-walls, 

 and in pastures on the edges of thickets. In the Hebrides, where it frequents the shores in 

 winter, it treats the Turbo littoreus and Trochus conuloicles in the same manner ; and of these 

 shells the fragments may often be found under shelter of some stone or slab to which the bird 

 flies with its prey. Many years ago, having in the course of my littoral rambles in Harris, 

 frequently heard a sharp sound like that of a small stone struck upon another, I endeavoured to 

 discover its cause, but for a long time in vain, until at length, being one day in search of birds 

 when the tide was out, I heard the well-known chink, and, standing still, discovered at a distance, 

 in a recess formed by two flat stones at the upper part of the shore, a bird moving its head and 

 body alternately upwards and downwards, each downward motion being followed by the noise 

 which had hitherto been so mysterious. Running up to the place, I found a Thrush, which, 

 flying off, left a whelk newly broken, but with the animal in it, lying amidst a heap of fragments 

 around a smooth stone. Having some years after mentioned the circumstance to a scientific 

 friend in Edinboro', I was favoured with an assurance of the utter impracticability of the feat, 

 which, indeed, is at first mention not very credible, although one may easily satisfy himself that 

 a whelk, thick as it is, is very easily broken by knocking it smartly against a hard body. 



" In the plains Thrushes are sometimes met with in considerable numbers in winter, and 

 during snow betake themselves along with the Fieldfares and Redwings to wet meadows ; but 

 the species is not strictly gregarious at that season. It is always more easily procurable than 

 any other species of the genus, being almost as familiar in winter as the Robin. Happening 

 on the 12th of March 1837, when there was snow on the ground, to meet with a Thrush 



