SONG THRUSH. 
91 
tinued with little intermission ; and when we 
have seen the same kind of weather prevail before 
winter had entirely passed, the thrush may be 
heard attempting his lay even in January and 
February ; for the last few years where, in the 
north at least, a winter of frost and snow has 
scarcely been known, the music was sung fre- 
quently, and with an approach to its usual clear- 
ness. This bird, which is arboreal in its usual 
habits, when gaining the limits of its range 
where the wood becomes scanty and stunted, still 
retains its desire for an elevated perch during the 
continuance of its song ; and in the northern ex- 
tremity of Scotland, the pinnacle of a rock is often 
selected as the site, whence to cheer his mate, 
who has selected her breeding place in the 
brush or ivy screen, or, perhaps, in the rank and 
tangled herbage growing on the edges of the 
cliff below.* 
The Song Thrush is generally distributed over 
the whole of Britain. It is met with in the richest 
demesnes, and abundantly in the vicinity of gar- 
dens, attracted by the plentiful supply of food ; 
while it is also found in the wilds of our northern 
Highlands and Hebrides, where the stunted copse 
* As indicating this propensity for selecting an elevated 
singing place, whatever the character of the country, Mr 
Thompson writes, “ When travelling over a very wild 
mountain tract between Cushendall and Ballycastle, 
covered with heath, and having no trees within miles, 
the nearer one (a Song Thrush) was perched on a ragweed 
that overtopped the heath.” Thomp. Mag. of Zool. and 
Bot. II. p. 434. 
