136 
MERULIM. 
place near the summit of the noble promontory of Fairhead. 
One or two pairs are said to inhabit the island of Bathlin,* a 
similar locality. Mr. Macgillivray, who gives a long and good 
account of the thrush, mentions it as abundant in the Hebrides, 
where it may be heard singing from the pinnacles of the rocks. 
B. B. vol. ii. p. 130. 
This bird breeds early in the north of Ireland; sometimes in 
the month of March, and not uncommonly before the middle 
of April, incubation has commenced. The favourite sites chosen 
for the nest are ever-green shrubs, young trees, and beech hedges, 
yet even where these abound, the thrush not unfrequently prefers 
placing it in the holes of walls and beneath the roof of sheds. In 
one of the latter situations, I knew a pair to build on the top 
of the wall just beneath the slates, for three successive summers. 
The nest was exposed to view from every part of the house which, 
too, was in the midst of shrubberies and plantations. The site was 
such as the swallow would select, and similar to one I have known 
the robin appropriate to itself in a yard in Belfast. Thrushes' nests 
at the Falls are sometimes placed among moss on ditch-banks 
overshadowed by ferns (Aspidii) or the rank hemlock. A nest in 
a pear-tree in the garden there, near to which is a hay-loft, was with 
the exception of its inner clay coating, constructed entirely of hay. 
A relative, who has attended to the nidification of birds, once 
found the nest of a thrush containing five eggs, on the ground in 
a meadow at Wolf-hill, — a place with grass about two feet high 
waving over it. This place abounded in such situations as are 
usually selected. Of four nests observed there in one season, two 
were in the holes of walls ; a third was built among ivy against 
a wall, and the fourth beneath the roof of a small out-house 
a favourite place, always chosen when the opportunity offered, 
was among heaps of the small branches of trees lying on the 
ground in a corner of the garden, and ready for use as pea-rods. 
In a garden a few miles distant, the blackbird took possession of 
heaps of similar branches for its nest. 
* Dr. J. D. Marshall. 
