WINTER SINGING OF THE SONG-THRUSH. 217 



and duties of that time, and may revert to it by association of 

 ideas when they are well-fed and comfortable in November and 

 December. But the majority of the singers of last autumn — 

 immigrants, birds of the year, and females — were very possibly 

 using their voices only in what Dr. Hacker has called " voice- 

 play." Thus, if by any chance I am right, there is a twofold 

 element in the winter song of this species ; but further observa- 

 tions may be expected to correct or modify a conclusion which I 

 only advance with hesitation. 



It may be as well to add that in the North of England the 

 Song-Thrush does not seem to be a familiar winter singer, no 

 doubt owing to the southward migration of this species in the 

 autumn. I am never myself in the north during the winter, and 

 have to rely on the evidence of others ; but I find Waterton, in 

 his characteristic essay on the Stormcock, describing the latter 

 bird as " cheering us with his melody during the dreary months 

 of winter when the Throstle and the Lark are silent." Lately 

 Mr. E. P. Butterfield, of Wilsden, near Bradford, in the natural 

 history column of the 'Yorkshire Weekly Post' (Dec. 29th, 1900), 

 asked "whether any of your readers have heard the Song-Thrush 

 in full song in Yorkshire in December " ; and added that he 

 himself had not, even in the most favourable season. 



I add a few notes about the winter singing of our two other 

 common Thrushes, the Mistle-Thrush and the Blackbird. The 

 former bird is a curiously irregular singer, and in his habit of 

 singing in the face of a strong wind he stands alone. I did not 

 notice him this year till December 19th, and it is in December, 

 I think, that his voice is most conspicuous. That the mid-winter 

 singing of this species is the beginning of the spring or breeding 

 song is almost certain ; for he is a very early breeder, and is 

 rarely in difficulties for food to support his vigorous vitality. 

 Like the Crossbill, he finds much of his favourite food in per- 

 fection in December and January — viz, the berries of the ivy, 

 yew, mistletoe, &c. 



As regards the Blackbird, it is worth noting that, in the 

 passage translated above, Dr. Hacker mentions this species as 

 regularly singing after the moult (i. e. in September) at Freiburg- 

 in-Breisgau ; and Gilbert White says the same of the Selborne 

 Blackbirds (letter xl. to Pennant, and letter ii. to Barrington). 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol, V., June, 1901. s 



