Thus, then, he spends his life from May till January: on cliffs by the sea, on bare moorlands, in thick woods—where the mountain-ash berries in their season form a favourite food—over open, cultivated fields where the freshly-turned furrow has unearthed abundant delicacies—or in the country hedgerow where hips and haws, elderberries and sloe are not less appreciated. Here to-day and gone to-morrow, a restless, wandering bird.

As early as January, however, he begins to think of nesting, and having secured a mate, retires to what is for him a comparatively sheltered spot, either to a wood, or preferably to a row of trees along a hedge, and not unfrequently to some fruit-tree in an orchard or garden. Whether or not the Missel Thrush returns year after year to the same spot to nest we cannot say, but, as a rule, the same garden or row of trees will every spring shelter a pair of these birds if once they have nested there.

Although he may probably build his nest quite close to our house, yet the Missel Thrush is always wild and shy, and is rarely seen except as he flies over the garden uttering his unmistakable note, or as he sits on the topmost branch of some tall tree and sings his love-song to his mate below. The song is wild, and consists of a somewhat incoherent medley of notes, which, if not calculated to appeal especially to our musical ear, strikes at any rate a note of harmony with the winter’s wind.

The nest is placed on a horizontal branch some 10 or 12 feet from the ground, and often at some distance from the trunk of the tree. The Missel Thrush is very conservative in its choice of a site, and seldom if ever chooses any other position. When built the nest is a fairly conspicuous object, with its foundation of twigs and mud and lined with grass and hay. Towards the end of February, however, we shall one day be surprised to see a large nest in some conspicuous position, and on examination will probably discover the hen, sitting on four to six eggs of a bluish colour with large reddish spots and blotches fairly evenly distributed over their surface. But even now, although we know exactly where the nest of these shy birds is, it will not be easy to see much of them.

When the young are hatched both parents attend most assiduously to the wants of the brood, feeding them on earth-worms, the favourite food of almost all the Thrushes. By the end of March the first brood is on the wing, and the parents busy themselves with a new nest for the reception of their second family. These, too, are hatched and on the wing by the middle of May, and then the whole family, young and old, leave their home to wander round the country until another January brings them back again to add their note of harmony to the winter’s wind.

The upper parts are of a uniform ash brown, under parts buffish white thickly spotted with dark brown. The sexes are alike in plumage. The young has the upper parts spotted with buff, and the spots below are much smaller. Length 11 in.; wing 6 in.

THE SONG THRUSH
Turdus musicus, Linnæus

One of the first signs that winter is thinking of releasing its grasp, and that spring, if still some way off, is nevertheless on the way, is the clear melodious song of the Song Thrush. Soon after daybreak (having breakfasted off the early worm) this bird may be heard in almost every garden that can boast of a shrub large enough to conceal him and his nest. Any sort of cultivated country forms his home, either the broad fields, scanty hedgerows, the carefully-cultivated garden of the wealthy, or even the small and dusty plot of the town-dweller.

SONG THRUSH
Turdus musicus