Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/160

 place near the summit of the noble promontory of Fairhead. One or two pairs are said to inhabit the island of Rathlin,* a similar locality. Mr. Macgillivray, who gives a long and good account of the thrush, mentions it as abundant in the Hebrides, where it may be heard singing from the pinnacles of the rocks. B. B. vol. ii. p. 130.

This bird breeds early in the north of Ireland; sometimes in the month of March, and not uncommonly before the middle of April, incubation has commenced. The favourite sites chosen for the nest are ever-green shrubs, young trees, and beech hedges, yet even where these abound, the thrush not unfrequently prefers placing it in the holes of walls and beneath the roof of sheds. In one of the latter situations, I knew a pair to build on the top of the wall just beneath the slates, for three successive summers. The nest was exposed to view from every part of the house which, too, was in the midst of shrubberies and plantations. The site was such as the swallow would select, and similar to one I have known the robin appropriate to itself in a yard in Belfast. Thrushes' nests at the Falls are sometimes placed among moss on ditch-banks overshadowed by ferns (Aspidii) or the rank hemlock. A nest in a pear-tree in the garden there, near to which is a hay-loft, was with the exception of its inner clay coating, constructed entirely of hay. A relative, who has attended to the nidification of birds, once found the nest of a thrush containing five eggs, on the ground in a meadow at Wolf-hill, — a place with grass about two feet high waving over it. This place abounded in such situations as are usually selected. Of four nests observed there in one season, two were in the holes of walls ; a third was built among ivy against a wall, and the fourth beneath the roof of a small out-house : — a favourite place, always chosen when the opportunity offered, was among heaps of the small branches of trees lying on the ground in a corner of the garden, and ready for use as pea-rods. In a garden a few miles distant, the blackbird took possession of heaps of similar branches for its nest.

Dr. J.D. Marshall.