32 



14 



Nearly all our writers on the same subject state that the nest of the Thrush is plastered 

 with cow-dung ; I am very much inclined to think that they are mistaken, and that if the 

 material is ever used, it is in very rare instances only. Amongst a large number of the nests 

 which I have examined, when the plaster was yet freshly spread, there did not appear to be 

 any thing besides clay, in which were mixed up small pieces of rotten wood, forming together, 

 when dry, a composition which in many instances is completely water-tight. When the spring 

 has been a wet one, I have frequently found the newly finished nests half full of water, either 

 causing their abandonment by the birds or delaying them some days from laying their eggs. In 

 a few nests I have noticed particles of reeds and thistle-down mixed with the clay instead of 

 rotten wood. In the south of England the Thrush begins to build early in March. In the 

 north it is much later. 



" In Westmoreland, where, with a party of my schoolfellows, I spent all my play-hours in 

 hunting birds' nests, each of us being on the alert and anxious to find the first of the season, we 

 never met with the eggs of the Thrush earlier than the beginning of April, and for several years 

 the first nest and eggs were taken between the 5th and 8th of the month. 



" The situation where we used to find them varied much — in thick thorn or holly bushes, 

 tall fern or brambles, the top of a dead stake-fence, or amongst the exposed roots of trees on a 

 bank-side ; they are also frequently built in gardens, on fruit-trees against a wall. Here, in 

 Surrey, where evergreens abound, they are glad to make use of the early shelter of the laurel ; 

 and two or three pairs every year make their nests high up upon the horizontal branches of some 

 large cedars. Mr. J. H. Gurney says that ' a Song-Thrush in a plantation at Sprowston, near 

 Norwich, instead of making her nest in the ordinary manner, laid and hatched her eggs on the 

 bare ground without any nest, but simply in a little hollow scratched out at the foot and under 

 the shelter of a small bush.' 



" It is sometimes no easy matter to remove an old nest of the Thrush when placed upon the 

 boughs of the laurel ; the mud of which it is formed, kept moist by a wet season, will cause the 

 branch to throw out roots which firmly bind it to the tree. The progress made by a Thrush in 

 the construction of its nest varies as much as the weather does at the season. In cold weather 

 the work goes on very dilatorily, and sometimes ceases altogether. In fine weather a nest will 

 be completed from the first bit of moss plastered, and contain its first egg, within a week. This 

 year I was witness to the most marvellous piece of architecture I ever saw. A Thrush had 

 completed its nest in a fir tree against the house, and had early one morning laid its first egg. 

 At ten o'clock the nest was torn out and taken away (how, I could not discover), but not, I 

 believe, by human means ; the rough grass which formed the bottom was all that was left. At 

 ten the next day, much to my astonishment, I found that the birds had completely restored the 

 nest, had again lined it with plaster, and that the female was then laying an egg ; this time, as 

 their perseverance deserved, they successfully reared their young ones. 



" The Thrush lays four or five eggs, spotted usually with deep black, rarely with red or 

 purple-brown ; sometimes they are without spots ; those which arc laid early in the year, and 

 during cold weather, are often less and of a lighter blue than those which are produced 

 afterwards." 



This bird is often subject to albinism; and we have seen several partial and total albinoes in 



