434 Contributions to the 



straw and the husks of grain, were found in the fifth, — the weather 

 was severe and frosty for a week previously ; and the sixth was stor- 

 ed with the husks and a grain of oats. 



The Song Thrush — Tardus musicus, Linn. — Is very common 

 throughout this country, in which it is permanently resident. Al- 

 though I have seen flocks of thrushes late in autumn, I agree with 

 Mr Selby, that it is not our indigenous birds that so congregate, 

 but that these bodies are on their migration from more northern 

 countries ; confirmative of which there seems not any diminution of 

 the species in its accustomed haunts, nor are these flocks seen, except 

 for a short time at a particular season. 



In England the thrush is considered only as an early songster, 

 beginning its melody at earliest by the end of January, (Selby,) and 

 continuing it until July, (Jenyns,) but in Ireland, where our winters 

 are milder, its song is in the north, with the exception of the time 

 of moulting, continued in fine weather throughout the year, and, as 

 if it felt the winter day too brief, its melody ceases not even when 

 the sun goes down. By reference to memoranda, it appears that in 

 December 1831, I heard it at Wolf hill, on the 5th, 30 minutes, on 

 the 19th, 40 minutes, and on the 26th, 45 minutes after sunset. 

 In summer, too, indeed, its notes are sometimes prolonged until a late 

 hour. On the 27th of May, I once heard them at half past nine o'clock 

 p. m. ; and a friend informs me, that about midsummer he on one 

 occasion heard them, in this neighbourhood also, at a quarter to ten 

 o'clock p. m. In June I have listened to its song so early as a quar- 

 ter past two o'clock A. m. When travelling in the month of June over 

 a very wild mountain tract between Cushendall and Ballycastle, 

 (co. Antrim,) covered with heath, and having no trees within miles 

 of it, I heard two thrushes singing ; the nearer one, which I saw and 

 listened to for some time, was perched on a ragweed (Senecio Ja- 

 cobsea) that overtopped the heath. The next day I saw one at a 

 still wilder place, near the summit of the promontory of Fairhead. 



The favourite site of the thrush's nest in the north of Ireland is 

 in evergreen shrubs, and young trees, and in beech hedges, yet even 

 where these abound, it not unfrequently prefers placing it in the 

 holes of walls and beneath the roofs of sheds, {n one of the latter 

 situations I knew a pair to build on the top of a beam for three suc- 

 cessive summers, though this house was in the midst of shruberries 

 and plantations. A relative, who has attended much to the nidi- 

 fication of birds, found the nest of a thrush containing five eggs, on 

 the ground in a meadow, with grass about two feet high waving 



