29 



n 



'"Wishing to know how soon Thrushes would build after having been deprived of their 

 young, I took four ripe ones out of a nest on Tuesday, the 6th of June, 1837. Having caught 

 the female I pulled the feathers out of her tail, and set her at liberty. On Wednesday, 

 the 21st of June, I discovered her sitting upon four eggs, of which I deprived her; and on 

 Monday, the 8th of July, she again had a nest with eggs. I allowed her to bring up her family 

 unmolested. 



" ' The feelings of tenderness which these birds manifest towards the young of other birds 

 have been displayed in several very striking instances. I have now in my possession a male 

 Thrush which, when it was six weeks old, brought up a brood of half-fledged Larks. What is 

 still more remarkable, he, with the most tender care and anxiety, fed a young Cuckoo which had 

 been taken out of a Titlark's nest in Pottisham Moss. No sooner, however, had he taught this 

 cruel bird to feed itself, than it requited its benefactor with harshness and ingratitude. Of the 

 least particle of food it would scarcely allow him to partake. With it he had several very severe 

 engagements ; and so quarrelsome did the Cuckoo become that it deprived him of a great number 

 of his feathers, so that I was at length obliged to put them in separate cages.' " 



Respecting the present species in Scandinavia, Mr. A. Benzon writes to us: — "In Norway 

 it is called Maltrost, under which name it occupies there the same place in poetry that the 

 Nightingale does in other countries. The name Kramsfugl is used both for this and other 

 Thrushes. It is said sometimes to winter with us, but generally arrives late in March or early in 

 April, having its first eggs late in this latter month. Its first nest is generally built in a spruce 

 tree or in a greenwood-tree, where old dried leaves remain, or on the side of a tree-trunk, and 

 where there is cover, &c. After the leaves are on the trees it builds in many sorts of bushes, but 

 seldom so low down as the Blackbird (Turdus merida), generally about two metres above the 

 ground, though sometimes lower, or else very high up. I have no albino, but have seen one 

 from near Copenhagen of a dirty-yellow colour. Here the nest is generally constructed of moss, 

 inside dabbed flat with clay (probably assisted with the bird's spittle). The eggs are generally 

 from four to five in number, seldom six. I have taken the first eggs on the 28th April, the 

 last on the 10th May, but have known of them being taken much later, as for instance the 

 end of July." 



The following interesting observations are extracted from Thompson's ' Birds of Ireland': — 

 " In addition to the naked or externally shelless snails, insects (coleoptera, larvae, chrysalides), 

 worms, seeds, and soft vegetable matter, the smaller Helices and other land-shells form in winter 

 a very considerable portion of the Thrush's food*. From a single stomach I have taken the 

 Helix cellaria, H. pura, and H. radiata, in addition to Limacelli ; and have similarly met with 

 the Bulimics lubricus and Vitrina pellucida. I once, at the end of February, found several spe- 

 cimens of this last species in one bird, which contained also five shells of Limaces (the snails 

 themselves being wholly digested), a coleopterous and another insect, together with chrysalides 

 and larva?. 



" The intelligent gamekeeper at Tollymore Park (Down) remarked to me in 1836, that, when 

 living in Ayrshire some years before that time with the Marquess of Bute, he had seen four pairs 



* "Since these notes were first published, Mr. Macgillivray has remarked that ' Helix aspersa, hortensis, 

 nemoralis, supply great part of its food in winter ' " (p. 133). 



2T 



