30 



12 



of cream-coloured Thrushes in one season ; that they bred and had also young of the same colour, 

 some of which were attempted to be reared, but unsuccessfully. They were observed but in the 

 one season." 



Respecting the autumnal migration in England the late Mr. Selby has written as follows : — 

 " This well-known songster, whose sweetly variable notes enliven our groves from the commence- 

 ment of spring to the close of summer, is indigenous in Britain, as the greater part of those bred 

 in the island remain stationary through the whole year. But these our native birds are aug- 

 mented by the visits of large flocks in the course of their autumnal journey from the more 

 northern countries of Europe. These last generally make their appearance before the Redwing 

 and Fieldfare, and, after recruiting their strength for a few days, move onward in a southerly 

 direction. Like many of our other autumnal visitants, they arrive with a north or north-east 

 wind, plainly indicating the countries from which they hold their progress. The Thrushes 

 which remain with us never associate in flocks during the winter, like the two above-mentioned 

 species, but continue dispersed throughout the country, haunting the thickets and hedges, where 

 they find a supply of insects and slugs, and of such berries as form their principal food during 

 the inclement season of the year. Upon the approach of very severe frosts, or falls of snow, I 

 have observed that they move from the interior of the country towards the sea-coast, where the 

 influence of the sea-breeze, soon dissolving the snow, exposes a portion of ground sufficient to 

 furnish them with a scanty subsistence. If the season should prove temperate, the male bird 

 begins to pour forth his love-notes as early as the latter part of January, or the beginning of the 

 month following. In March the pair commence nidification, and the first brood flies about the 

 month of May." 



Professor Newton has also written in the ' Ibis,' for 1860 on the same subject ; and his 

 original notice we believe to be of sufficient importance to be transcribed entire : — " Mr. Tomes, 

 in his excellent paper on White's Thrush in the last number of 'The Ibis' (1859, p. 379), speaks 

 of the Song-Thrush (T. musicus) as having ' resident habits,' and possessing ' organs of flight not 

 adapted for migration.' Now, without pausing to inquire whether the words ' resident ' and 

 ' migratory ' do not in most (if not in all) cases refer to special localities, and also whether we 

 may not be confusing two very dissimilar ideas in applying these terms indiscriminately to the 

 collective or particular individuals of a species, I wish to remark that I believe the Song-Thrush, 

 throughout by far the greater part of its geographical range, to be essentially migratory. It is 

 true that this fact has not been recorded by many writers in this country ; but to mention the 

 naturalists who have noticed it on the Continent would be to enumerate almost every European 

 ornithologist of authority from Sweden to Sicily. Of British authors, however, Mr. Selby alludes 

 (Brit. Orn. i. p. 163) to the 'considerable accession in number' which our native Song-Thrushes 

 receive towards the end of autumn from the north — a remark which is quoted also by Mr. Yarrell 

 (B. B. i. p. 195). Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, in their 'Account of Birds found in Norfolk,' 

 state (Zool. p. 130C) that 'in very severe winters many of the Song-Thrushes appear to leave this 

 district and to go further soutli ;' while two foreign naturalists, MM. Deby and Duval- Jouve, in 

 local lists which have been printed in this country, speak in still more unqualified terms of the 

 migration of this species. The former, in his ' Notes on the Birds of Belgium,' says (Zool. p. 861) 

 that it is ' very common in March and April in spring, and on its return in September and 



