THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



91 



notes is less than that which the blackbird can accomplish. Nevertheless, its 

 familiar melody is the most cheerful and exhilarating of all the woodland 

 chantings ; while the notes are so clear and flute-like that the woods positively 

 resound with his song, as perched on one of the higher branches of a tree, he 

 pours forth his varied and sonorous melody. Stop and look at him if you 

 like for he is not a timid bird, and provided you move gently will let you get 

 very near him, near enough at any rate to see what he is like. You will 

 notice first his yellowish-brown breast, and flanks and sides of his neck of the 

 same colour, and his greyish-white abdomen, and you see all his underparts 

 thickly spotted with dark brown, and the sides of his face also spotted with 

 smaller spots on a ground of the same colour as his breast ; and then as he 

 turns himself about you will see the very top of his head, his back and upper 

 surface generally are of a brown hue. 



Now he abruptly stops his song and turns his head sideways and away he 

 goes in a slanting direction down to the ground. Has he become suspicious 

 of your intentions ? Wait a moment ! No, he has caught sight of a big 

 snail. See ! he takes it in his beak and batters it on a stone and then flies 

 up into the tree and disappears for a moment in the foliage. Now he begins 

 his song again but soon stops, once more he is down on the ground, and now 

 he is digging with his bill and tugging up a worm. Once more he ascends 

 with the worm in his beak. Doubtless he has a nest close by. Let us watch 

 him. Yes, there it. is on that forked branch yonder — a large substantial 

 affair. We will climb the tree and look at it, it is not far up. See ! it is 

 made of roots and mosses, and lined with dried cow-dung and sawdust. The 

 eggs of the thrush you know are five in number, but in this particular nest 

 they are hatched, and instead of eggs we see four gaping yellow beaks on 

 little callow bodies, and one addled egg which we take the liberty of appro- 

 priating. No Mr. Throstle, and you Mrs. Throstle, who we see in the distance 

 anxiously watching our proceedings, we will not hurt your darlings or deprive 

 you of them. We have too much love for all creation, and especially for the 

 feathered portion thereof, to occasion needless pain, mental or bodily, so we 

 will leave you and your young brood in peace, and pray that you may escape 

 ftie notice of mischievous urchins who will perhaps take your laboriously 

 built nest and young ones and do as I once saw a young rascal do — stone the 

 callow innocents to death in wanton cruelty. 



1 have never been able to satisfactorily ascertain, in what way the birds 

 plaster the inside of the nest so very neatly and smoothly. Is it smoothed 

 by the movements of the hen bird as she sits in the nest ? If it be done with 

 the beak, as some naturalists assert, it is truly wonderful. In whatever way 

 it is done, the perfect way in which the inside of the nest is finished is really 



