510 



THRUSH. 



Bewick's Br. Birds, 1. p. 100. — Low's Fauna Oread, p. 57 — Shaw's Zool. 10. p. 

 174 — Flem. Br. Anim. p. 64.— Syme, p. 45 Selby, pi. 45. fig. 2. p. 154. 



Provincial. — -Mavis. Throstle Cock. Grey Bird.* 

 This species weighs about three ounces ; length nine inches. The 

 hill is nearly an inch long, dusky, the under mandible yellowish at the 

 base ; irides hazel ; the head and upper parts are yellowish-brown, with 

 a few dusky lines ; the throat, neck, and sides yellowish ; breast and 

 belly white, elegantly spotted on the former with triangular dusky 

 spots, somewhat resembling arrow-heads pointing upwards ; the under 

 coverts of the wings dull orange-yellow ; legs light brown. 



This well-known bird is admired by every one for its song. Every 

 wood and grove re-echoes with its melodious notes in the spring, fre- 

 quently beginning its tuneful lays as early as February, if the weather 

 is mild, contending with the missel in its love-strained notes. As the 

 song is a prelude to incubation, so this species makes its nest in March, 

 composed of dried grass and green moss externally, and plastered within 

 with rotten wood, mixed with cow-dung or clay, which is so compact as 

 to hold water, and sometimes proves fatal to their eggs, for in a rainy 

 season we have often found it full. It lays four or five blue eggs, spotted 

 with black at the larger end; their weight from eighty to ninety grains. 

 The nest is placed sometimes on a stool or stump of a tree, very near 

 the ground, or against the side of a tree, and frequently in a hedge or 

 solitary bush. 



The Thrush remains in England the whole year, but is supposed to 

 quit the more northern parts in winter. It is not, however, gregarious 

 with us at any time, although it has been observed to pass through Li- 

 vonia, Courland, and Prussia, together with the missel and fieldfares, in 

 prodigious quantities, about Michaelmas, in their flight to the Alps. It 

 is said to be migratory in France, visiting Burgundy when the grapes 

 are ripe, and doing great damage to the vineyards. In various parts of 

 England it is known by the names of song thrush, mavis, and grey- 

 bird. 



A species of Thrush has been mentioned under the denomination of 

 heath throstle ; it is said to have the breast darker and the tail shorter 

 than this bird ; but we have not sufficient grounds to believe it is distinct 

 from this. 



The food of the Thrush is insects and berries of various kinds ; but 

 it is particularly fond of shell snails, especially the Helix nemoralis, 

 which it breaks by reiterated strokes against some stone. It is not un- 

 common to find a great quantity of fragment shells together, as if 

 brought to one particular stone for that purpose. 



