200 THRUSH.

well calculated for protecting the eggs or young from the
keen winds of early spring. Two broods are produced
yearly.

Worms, snails, slugs, insects, and berries constitute
the food of the thrush. The common garden snail and
the wood snail are greedily devoured, the bird beating
the shell against a stone till it is completely broken,
and the contents are disengaged.”

The following anecdote is related in the ‘Zoologist :”—
“This year, (1845,) during the breeding season, a pair
of thrushes located themselves in a shed belonging to
the Navigation Company, and forthwith. proceeded to
build their nest. It was placed on a shelf among some
odd pieces of wood, and in it, when finished, were laid
four eggs, which, after the usual period of incubation, were
hatched. The shelf on which the nest was built was not
above five feet from the bench, at which three or four
carpenters were continually at work.”

This is only one out of numberless instances which
prove that if birds are but treated with kindness, and
not alarmed or molested, they will become far more
familiar, and consequently be far better known than might
otherwise be ignorantly imagined.