THE SOM G -THRUSH. 
“ Within a thick and spreading- hawthorn-bush, 
That overhung- a mole-hill large and round, 
I heard, from morn \;o morn, a merry tlirush 
Sing hymns to sunrise, while I drank the sound 
With joy ; and often an intruding guest, 
1 watched her secret toils, from day to day, 
How true she warped the moss to form her nest, 
And modelled it within with wood and clay. 
And by-and-by, like heath-bells gilt with dew, 
There lay her shining eggs, as bright as flowers, 
Ink-spotted-over shells of green and blue. 
And there I witnessed in the summer hours 
A brood of nature’s minstrels chirp and fly, 
Glad as the sunshine and the laughing sky.” 
Doing good service to the agriculturist by clearing the 
orchard of the snails and other vermin visiting it, when the 
fruit-trees are loaded with their luscious produce, the thrush, 
probably, thinks he has a legitimate right to a share of the 
good things which he does so much towards preserving. 
Certain it is that the thrush commits terrible havoc in the 
autumn months, and devours berries and fruits in great 
abundance, having a decided partiality for cherries. But he 
is not without his defenders. Says a well-known naturalist, 
**' In no case, indeed, does it become us to be over chary of 
admitting our fellow- creatures to a share of the good things, 
which are in reality no more the property of the man than 
of the bird ; remembering, that although to man has been 
given the dominion over every inhabitant of the earth, yet 
the beasts, the birds, the creeping things, have also received 
the gift of every green herb from the same Divine hand 
which intrusted man with an authority higher in degree, 
but not more authentic in origin.” Although this philosophy 
would hardly expect to meet a hearty response on the part of 
the market-gardener — and it is rather annoying to have your 
choicest plants destroyed by the caterpillar — still it is true in 
the main. What right has man to churlishly deny the fruits 
and flowers of the earth to bird or insect ? Are they not then- 
inheritance ? and all equally share the love of Him who sent 
them, as Coleridge, in his beautiful poem, has told us : — 
“ He prayeth well, who loveth well 
Both man, and bird, and beast ; 
He prayeth best, who loveth best 
All things both great and small : 
For the dear God who loveth us 
He made and loveth all.” 
The time to go nesting for the thrush is about the second 
week in April. It is as well to put on a pair of stout gloves 
