170 
THRUSHES. 
in man : but a more singular instance, considering tbe near- 
ness of the parties concerned, fell under our observation a 
season or two ago: namely, a Blackbird’s nest on the ground, 
in a tuft of grass or rushes close to the seat of a rabbit, the 
tail, in fact, of the rabbit being in contact with the nest. As 
the seat as well as the nest were both occupied, these two 
companions must have sat meditating together for many a day, 
in perfect peace and good fellowship. We do not know 
whether the Blackbird ever sings on its nest, which might 
have been a very gratifying attraction to the rabbit ; but the 
Thrush unquestionably sometimes does. Few birds, indeed, 
seem to be more liberal in the use of their voice ; we have 
heard it repeatedly, on fine nights, in the latter end of May, 
singing till after dark, and have been roused from our j 
slumbers by a repetition of the same well-known song by j 
two o’clock in the morning. The following anecdote con- , 
nected with the intelligence of Thrushes, in alluding to their 
modes of feeding, may not be out of place. Not long ago, in 
the city of Norwich, a gentleman had a young Thrush and 
equally young Blackbird, both in fact nestlings, which he 
kept in the same cage. The Thrush soon learned to feed 
itself, not so, however, its companion the Blackbird, which no I 
doubt would soon have died from exhaustion, had not the I 
Thrush undertaken the office of nurse, which it perseveringly | 
continued for ten days, regularly feeding the starving bird, !' 
until at the expiration of the above time, it was competent to 
feed itself. 
Those who have seen a young Cuckoo fed by its unsus- | 
spicious step-mother, seated on a bough or rail, opening its j 
wide-gaping mouth, as if ready to swallow the poor little bird 
that hung over it with fond attachment, fluttering its little 
wings as it dropped a caterpillar down the monster’s greedy 
throat, will be the less surprised at the following anecdote, of 
what may be called unnatural attachment between Thrushes 
and birds of a very different character. 
We know nothing of the strange ways by which Providence 
brings about some of the apparently singular contradictions J 
in its established rules ; but knowing for a certainty, that by 
