TH1UTSH. 
185 
bird and the liquid name of the editor of the Delphin edition 
of Horace. A somewhat similar classical likeness has been 
recorded in the reference to the note of the Blue Titmouse, 
and the ‘Pleasures of Memory’ will at all events, I feel 
assured, be allowed to plead in excuse of the comparison, even 
if the resemblance be not so striking to all minds as it is 
to mine, and I doubt not is also to those of some of my 
old schoolfellows. 
The Thiush begins to sing so early as from one to two 
o’clock in the long midsummer mornings. It may be taught 
to whistle many tunes and waltzes with great precision. It 
sometimes sings while sitting on the nest. When perched 
upon a tree, whether it be a high or a low one, it is almoso 
always at or near the top that the strain is uttered. 
Nidification commences the latter end of March, and the 
eggs are deposited earlier or later in April, though sometimes 
not until May, according to the season. Nests have been 
known to have been begun even so early as the middle of 
February, but frost caused them to be deserted. They are 
correspondingly able to fly from the latter end of April to 
the middle of June, and have been known to have been 
hatched even on the last day of March. A second brood is 
generally reared in the season, and if one set of eggs is 
destroyed, a second is produced in a fortnight, or even a 
third if need be. The female is extremely attentive to her 
charge, and will sit on the nest until quite closely approached, 
and will sometimes suffer herself to be taken sooner than 
forsake it. If you disturb and alarm her, she will testify her 
anxiety by flying round you with ruffled feathers and outspread 
tail, uttering a note of alarm, and violently snapping the 
bill. If unmolested, both birds have been known to pick up 
crumbs of bread thrown down to them, and to give them to 
their young. 
Mr. Macgillivray had a male Thrush, which when only six 
weeks old, brought up a brood of half-fledged Larks; and also 
fed a young Cuckoo with the most tender care and anxiety. 
The Thrush was however repaid with the most base ingratitude 
by his thankless protege, for after he had taught it to feed 
itself, it repeatedly attacked its benefactor, and would scarcely 
even allow him to partake of the least atom of food. Another, 
also a young bird, kept in a cage with a young Blackbird 
by a gentleman in the city of Norwich, having soon learned 
to feed itself, undertook the care of its companion, which it 
