] 68 
THRUSHES. 
the shed, just over their heads. The carpenters had arrived 
soon after six o’clock; and at seven, when they found the 
nest, it was in a great state of forwardness, and had evidently } 
been the morning’s work of a pair of these indefatigable birds. | 
Their activity throughout the day was incessant, and when 
the workmen left off in the evening, and came again in the J 
morning, they found the female seated in her half-finished ! 
mansion, and, when she flew off for a short time, it was found I 
that she had already laid an egg, though the bottom of the |j 
nest was the only part plastered and completed, evidently to I 
meet the pressing necessity of the female bird. When all 
was finished, the cock took his share in the hatching ; and, 
though he did not sit so long, he was very attentive in feeding 
her when on the nest. In thirteen days the young birds 
were out of their shells, which the old ones carried off. It is 
generally supposed that the usual food for nestling thrushes 
consists of grubs and worms, quantities of which they may he 
constantly seen collecting on lawns, particularly after showers 
have moistened the earth ; and, to those who have opportu- 
nities of observing them, nothing can he more interesting than 
the way they, as well as Blackbirds and some other birds, set 
about it. 
Watch an old Thrush pounce down on a lawn moistened 
with dew or rain. At first he stands motionless, apparently 
thinking of nothing at all, his eye vacant, or with an un- 
meaning gaze. Suddenly he cocks his ear on one side, makes 
a glancing sort of dart with his head and neck, gives perhaps 
one or two hops, and then stops, again listening attentively, 
and his eye glistening with attention and animation ; his beak 
almost touches the ground, — he draws hack his head, as if to 
make a determined peck. Again he pauses ; listens again ; 
hops, perhaps, once or twice, scarcely moving his position, and 
pecks smartly on the sod ; then is once more motionless as a 
stuffed bird. But he knows well what he is about ; for, after 
another moment’s pause, having ascertained that all is right, 
he pecks away with might and main, and soon draws out a 
fine worm, which his fine sense of hearing had informed him 
was not far off, and which his hops and previous peckings had 
