THE THRUSH. 
before you start, as it is the bird’s habit to build in a haw- 
thorn, holly, or some other bush with sharp-toothed leaves. 
Bear in mind that the thrush generally builds in the neigh- 
bourhood of a pond or brook. As it is almost impossible to 
distinguish the male from the female nestlings, you had better 
take nest and all. Keep them in the nest till it gets foul, then 
take them out, and place them in a basket warmly lined with 
hay. Every two hours give them a moderate meal of the 
following mixture : the crumb of bread soaked in fresh milk, 
crushed hemp-seed, and raw beef-steak shredded very fine. 
When they are five weeks old remove them from the basket, 
I and put them in a large cage that has two or three perches in 
] it. Gradually wean them from the sopped bread, and feed 
| them entirely on scraped lean beef and crumbled bread. Make 
j the following paste, and let them have it by way of variety : 
l half a pint of oatmeal, the white of a hard-boiled hen’s egg, 
] two ounces of sweet almonds, a spoonful of hemp-seed, and 
j half a gill of rape-oil ; unite well together, and run through a 
| sieve. 
So constantly does the thrush tune his merry pipes at the 
1 approach of genial weather, that he has been dubbed by the 
j poets the herald of spring ; but by none of them has he been 
more prettily addressed than by a lady poet, Mrs. Charlotte 
Smith. She says : — 
\ fi Oh ! herald of the spring ! while yet 
J No hare-bell scents the woodland vale. 
Nor starwort fair, nor violet. 
Braves bleak gust and driving rain ; 
’Tis thine, as through the copses rude 
Some pensive wanderer sighs alone, 
To soothe him with thy cheerful song. 
And tell of hope and fortitude. 
! “ For thee, then, may the hawthorn-bush, 
j The elder and the spindle-tree, 
| With all their various berries blush, 
And the blue sloe abound for thee ! 
For thee the coral holly grow 
Its armed and glossy leaves among ; 
And many a branched oak be hung 
With the pellucid mistletoe ! ” 
Its Powers of Imitation. — Well known as tbe tbrush is, a 
description of him is necessary, if it is only to put ignorant 
purchasers on their guard against the fraudulent machinations 
of bird-sellers. Erom tail to beak, the full-grown cock -thrush 
is nine inches long. The wings, back, and tail of an olive-brown, 
76 
