186 
THRUSH. 
fed perseveringly for ten days, until at the expiration of that 
period it too was able to feed itself, which before it was not. 
If the eggs of another kindred species should be placed in 
the nest of a Thrush, both will be educated together without 
distinction—‘nullo discrimine.’ 
The nest is composed of moss, small twigs, straws, leaves, 
roots, stems of plants, and grass, compacted together with some 
tenacious substance with tolerable ingenuity, and is lined with 
a congeries of clay and decayed wood. Its diameter is usually 
about three inches and a half or four inches inside, and about 
seven outside; its depth from two and a half to four. It is 
placed in a hedge or thick bush of any kind at a small 
height from the ground, and likewise at times on a rough 
bank among moss, brambles, or shrubs, as also, where the 
country is unwooded, under the shelter of some projecting 
stone or crag, in the crevice of a rock, or in a tuft of heath. 
One has been known to be placed on a rail, and one on the 
shaft of a thrashing machine: they are not unfrequently found 
in a shed or open tool-house. These birds are sometimes 
very expeditious in erecting their nests.—‘Thus,’ says Mr. 
Macgillivray, ‘on Thursday morning, the 15th. of June, 1837, 
a pair began to build in an apple-tree in my garden. On 
Friday afternoon the nest was finished, and on Saturday 
morning, the 17th., the first egg was laid in it, although the 
plaster in the inside was very wet. On Wednesday, the 21st., 
the female began to sit on five eggs, and on Monday, the 
17th. of July, the young ones flew out of their nest.’ 
The late amiable Dr. Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, whom I 
have so frequently had the pleasure of quoting from, gives 
the following account as an instance of the confidence which 
the Thrush, if undisturbed, will exhibit in building its own 
habitation close to that of man:—A short time ago, in Scotland, 
some carpenters working in a shed adjacent to a house, 
observed one of these birds flying in and out, which induced 
them to direct their attention to the cause, when, to their 
surprise, they found a nest commenced among the teeth of a 
harrow, which, with some other farming-tools and implements, 
were placed upon the joists of 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 state of great 
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 
