28 



10 



They now ceased from their labours for this day, after having fed their brood two hundred and 

 six times. 



" ' In the forenoon and part of the afternoon they frequently stretched out the wings of the 

 young birds, and with their bills one would have thought that they sometimes trimmed almost 

 every one of their feathers. In keeping their young ones clean they are uncommonly careful. 

 As a proof of this, I ordered my servant-boy to rub the head and back of two of them with soft 

 cow-dung. Upon coming into their nest they immediately perceived it, and seemed much 

 enraged. They, however, set to work, and did not desist until they had completely removed it. 

 For this purpose they made use of dry earth, which in the operation appeared to me to assist 

 them greatly. 



" ' Their food in the morning consisted principally of snails and slugs. They sometimes 

 brought to their young one large worm, at other times three and four worms. As for some 

 weeks past there had been a severe drought, the worms which they caught in the middle of the 

 day were smaller and in less quantities than those which they procured in the morning and 

 evening. 



" ' During the day the Thrushes swallowed almost the whole of the droppings of their young. 

 As from personal observation I had until now been ignorant of this circumstance, and did not 

 recollect to have seen it mentioned in any book which I had perused, I was determined to be 

 more fully convinced of its truth, and accordingly next day put a female out of her nest, in which 

 she was sitting upon four well-feathered young ones. In half an hour she returned, and after 

 having fed them stood until they ejected their - droppings, which she immediately swallowed, and 

 then, without flying off, sat down upon them for an hour and a half. A short time after this I 

 observed her repeat the same thing. In further confirmation of this curious fact, I shot a male 

 the moment after he had swallowed the droppings, and upon dissection they were found deposited 

 in his stomach. 



" ' They are so exceedingly acute of hearing, that the least motion which I made attracted 

 their attention ; and I am confident that, had it not been a very stormy day, I should not have 

 succeeded in my observations. 



" ' In erecting their nests Thrushes are sometimes very expeditious. On Thursday morning, 

 the 15th June, 1837, a pair began to build in an apple-tree in my garden. On Friday afternoon 

 the nest was finished; and on Saturday morning, the 17th, the first egg was laid in it, although 

 the plaster in the inside was very wet. On Wednesday the 21st the female began to sit on five 

 eggs; and on Monday the 17th of July the young ones flew out of their nest. 



" ' Thrushes are sometimes very tame. Although I have put my head within a few inches 

 of their nest, the female remained upon her eggs without showing any symptoms of uneasiness ; 

 and when the young ones were nearly ripe I have stood within a few yards of her whilst she was 

 feeding them. 



" ' In the inside of the barn of Bathville farmhouse, about a mile west from my residence, 

 in the middle of June 1833, a pair of Thrushes built their nest on the end of the shaft of a 

 threshing-machine, which had been set up against the wall, and there brought up five young 

 ones. So familiar did they become, that when the children put down bread to them they 

 immediately picked it up and gave it to their brood. 



