In this country, according to Mr. White, the throstle begins to sing between the sixth and twenty-second of January. It is the finest of our indigenous singing birds, not only for the sweetness and variety of its notes, but for the long continuance of them, as it delights us with its song for nearly three parts of the year. Like the missel bird it pours forth its music from the top of some high tree; and this it continues to do for hours together, displaying a charming wildness and vast variety skilfully combined. Being subject to frequent returns of the amorous passion, which is the source of all the music of the grove, it is extremely prolific, producing in some countries no less than three broods in one season.

With us it changes its residence according to the variations of the year, but is not supposed to depart from the island. In long droughts, when worms and other insects are scarce, it is very useful in gardens by destroying great quantities of snails, which it carefully seeks, and, breaking the shells against a stone, feeds its young with their contents. Two specimens of an uniform buff colour, Mr. Pennant informs us, were sent to the ingenious Miss Meyrick of Beaumaris. One was found near St. Asaph, and the other near Bangor.

This species is widely diffused over Europe. It is frequent in Scotland, England, France, Germany, and Sweden. There are some districts in Poland, where such numbers are annually caught, that, according to Buffon, the inhabitants load many small vessels with them for exportation. Their flesh is esteemed wholesome, and in Silesia, where they are also very numerous, they are not only used for the immediate supply of food, but after being roasted, are preserved in vinegar till the following summer. France and Italy this bird is migratory. In Burgundy they appear just before the vintage, in order to feed on the ripe grapes, and often intoxicate themselves with their juice. In France, therefore, they are generally called la grive de vigne.

In

There are several varieties of the song thrush in Europe, and three or four in America. One of these is the mocking-bird, turdus polyglottus of Linnæus, or according to Dr. Shaw, more classically, turdus Orpheus, respecting which, a few words, it is hoped, may be allowed here. The Mexicans, on account of the variety of his notes and his imitative powers, call

him "the bird of four hundred tongues.'

In the warmer parts of America, he sings almost incessantly from March to August, both day and night; beginning with his own compositions, and frequently finishing by borrowing from those of the whole feathered choir. He repeats his tunes with such skill and sweetness, as to excite both pleasure and surprise. His own notes are truly musical, and he can at pleasure assume the tone of every other animal in the forest, from the humming-bird to the eagle, and will frequently mimic even the wolf and the raven. One of them confined in a cage, has been heard to imitate the mewing of a cat, the barking of a dog, the chattering of a magpie, the cooing of a dove, and the creaking of the rusty hinges of a sign-post, all in rapid succession. The editor of this work once heard two of these birds in cages, in emulative strains, pour forth such varied, wild, and rich melodious music, as imagination disperses through the groves of Arcadia; the Pierian Shades of the elegant retreat of the Muses and Graces; or as Mussulman faith supplies to the everblooming trees which fan with perpetual fragrance the enchanting abode of the Houris. This exquisite treat was enjoyed in the State of New Jersey, and in an atmosphere laden to excess with the delicious perfume of the magnolia. How vain the attempt to describe such pleasures!

To return to the thrush. These birds have been supposed to be gregarious, but they associate only in families, and these separate as soon as the young are capable of providing for themselves. Thrushes, which so sweetly enliven the forest with their music, sing equally well in a state of captivity, and are susceptible also of strong attachment. A lady of my acquaintance, says Sonnini, had a thrush which she kept eight years. He became so familiar as to follow his mistress, and whistled a variety of tunes. He lived upon a paste, made of crumb of bread and rape-seed mixed, of which he consumed fifty two pounds in the course of the year. This is a curious observation, affording a medium of judging of the quantity of food taken by a bird, and of the depredations committed by some of the species on the produce of our fields and gardens, as well as of the benefits derived from the immense numbers of insects which they must destroy.

When educated from the nest, the thrush will readily learn the song of the woodlark, nightingale, or any other musical bird.

NEST AND EGGS OF THE SONG-THRUSH.

PLATE VI.

SONG-THRUSHES generally build their nests in some close thicket, or low bush, near the ground. The outside is formed of small sticks, withered leaves, grass, and various kinds of moss. Plenty of these materials are huddled together in a loose and negligent manner.

The inmost coat or lining is a made of a mixture of clay and rotten wood, with a few slender blades of withered grass to bind it together, and is near half an inch thick; upon this plaster the eggs are laid, no grass or soft covering being put upon it, as in that of the blackbird, misselbird, &c. The eggs are of a beautiful pale blue, with a cast of green, and marked with a few distinct purple spots.

The cock is distinguished from the hen by the general hue of his colours being brighter and stronger, particularly by the light-coloured line which passes from the bill to the eyes being whiter in the cock, and the darkcoloured line being darker.