SONG THRUSH. 
81 
INC ESSO RES. 
DENTIROSTRES. 
MERULIDJE. 
SONG THRUSH. 
Turdus MUSICUS. 
PLATE XXIII. FIG. II. 
The nest of the thrush is composed of moss and dry 
grass, with the addition of a few sticks, straw, and roots, 
cemented together in the inside by a composition of clay 
and rotten wood. 
Nearly all our writers on the subject state, that the 
nest of the thrush is plastered with cow-dung; I am very 
much inclined to think that they are mistaken, and that 
if the material is ever used, it is in very rare instances 
only. Amongst a large number of the nests which I have 
examined, when the plaster was yet freshly spread, there 
did not appear to be anything besides clay, in which was 
mixed up small bits of rotten wood, forming together, 
when dry, a composition which in many instances is com¬ 
pletely water-tight. When the spring has been a wet 
one I have frequently found the newly-finished nests half 
full of water, either causing their abandonment by the 
birds, or delaying them some days from laying their eggs. 
In a few nests I have noticed particles of reeds and 
thistle-down mixed with the clay instead of rotten wood. 
In the south of England the Thrush begins to build 
early in March. In the north it is much later. 
In Westmoreland, where with a party of my school¬ 
fellows I spent all my play hours in hunting birds’ 
nests, each of us being on the alert and anxious to find 
G 
