82 
MERULIDJE. 
the first of the season, we never met with the eggs of the 
thrush earlier than the beginning of April, and for seve¬ 
ral years the first nest and eggs were taken between the 
5th and 8th of the month. 
The situation where we used to find them varied much. 
In thick thorn or holly bushes, tall furze or bram¬ 
bles, the top of a dead stake-fence, or amongst the ex¬ 
posed roots of trees on a bank side; they are also fre¬ 
quently built in gardens on fruit-trees against a wall. 
Here, in Surrey, where evergreens abound, they are glad 
to make use of the early shelter of the laurel, and two 
or three pairs every year make their nests high up upon 
the horizontal branches of some large cedars. Mr. J. II. 
Gurney says, that “ a Song Thrush in a plantation at 
Sprowston, near Norwich, instead of making her nest in 
the ordinary manner, laid and hatched her eggs on the 
bare ground without any nest, but simply in a little hol¬ 
low scratched out at the foot, and under the shelter of a 
small bush.” 
It is sometimes no easy matter to remove an old nest 
of the thrush when placed upon the boughs of the laurel, 
the mud of which it is formed, kept moist by a wet season, 
will cause the branch to throw out roots which firmly 
bind it to the tree. The progress made by a thrush in 
the construction of its nest varies as much as the weather 
does at the season. In cold weather the work goes on 
very dilatorily, and sometimes ceases altogether. In fine 
weather a nest will be completed from the first bit of 
moss, plastered, and contain its first egg within a week. 
This year I was witness to the most marvellous piece of. 
architecture I ever saw; a thrush had completed its nest 
in a fir-tree against the house, and had early one morn¬ 
ing laid its first egg. At ten o’clock the nest was torn 
out and taken away, how I could not discover, but not, I 
