A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman.

George Montagu

Date:: 1866

Credit: A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

378/440 page 350

$web ; the other primaries light grey; the secondaries, tertials, and the scapulai’y feathers slate-grey. The chin, neck in front, breast, belly, sides, and flanks black; under ^dng-coverts, some black, others slate-grey; under tail-coverts and under surface of the tail-feathers wliite; legs, toes, and their membranes pale yellow in ; the preserved bird, coral-red in the living j bird ; the claws black, the interdigital membranes very much indented. The ' whole length of the specimen described is | nine inches and a half; the wing from the I anterior joint to the end of the first pri- mary, which is the longest in the wing, eight inches and a quarter.”— Yarrell, Br. Birds, iii. 535. This very beautiful spe- cies of Tern inhabits the Mediterranean, and according to Temminck is very com- mon about Gibraltar and the lakes of Lu- carno, Lugano, Como, Isco and Guarda, and is occasionally seen on the Lake of Geneva. Very few specimens have oc- curred in this country ; one is mentioned in the ‘ Annals of Natural History,’ vol. XV. p. 271, as lulled by Mr. Hill on the Shannon in 1841 ; and another, at page 3011 of the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1853, as lulled by Mr. Rishig’s keeper, at Horsey, near Yarmouth.] Terrick.—See Tern, Common. Tewit.—See Laptving. [Thickbilled Guillemot.— See Guillemot, Brunnich’s ; it is the Guillemot a gros bee of Temminck, Man. d’Ornith. ii. 924.] [Thickkneed Bustard. [Thickkneed Plover. [Thickknee. See Bustard, Thickkneed.] [Threetoed Quail. — See Quail, Andalu- sian.] Throstle.— \Yairell, i. 212; Hewitson, xxiii. 81.] Turdns Musicus, Lin. Syst. i. p. 292, 2 ; Gmel. Syst. i. p. 809 ; Baii Syn. p. 04, A. 2 ; Will. p. 138, t. 37 ; hid. Orn. i. p. 327; Bewick, Br. Birds, i. t. p. 104. Turdns minor, Bris. ii. p. 205, 2 ; Ih. 8vo, i. p. 214. La Grive, Buf. iii. p. 280. Throstle, Mavis, or Song Thrush, Will. Angl. p. 188; Br. Zool. i. No. 107; Ih. fol. 91, t. P. f. 2 ; Arct. Zool. ii. p. 342, C.; Alhin, i. t. 34 ; Ih. Song Birds, t. 2; Leioin, Br. Birds, ii. t. 58; Lath. Syn. iii. p. 18, 2; Sup. p. 139; Wale. Syn. ii. t. 198; Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 10. — This common species of Thrush weighs about three j ounces; length nine inches. The bill is nearly an inch long, dusky, the under | mandible yeUowish at the ba.se; irides \ hazel. The head and whole upper parts ! are of a yellowish brown, with a few ob- scure dusky lines on the foi’iner; the throat, neck, and sides yellowish; breast and belly white, elegantly spotted on the former with triangular dusky spots, some- what resembling arrow-heads pointing up- wards ; the under coverts of the wings dull orange-yellow; legs light brown. This well-known bird is admired by every one for its song. Every wood and grove re- echoes with its melodious notes in the spring, frequently beginning its tunefid la3^s as early as Febrnarj' if the weather is mild, contending with the Missel in its love-strained notes. As the song is a pre- lude to incubation, so this species makes its nest in March, composed of dried grass and green moss externally, and plastered within with rotten wood mixed with cow- dung or clay, which is so compact as to hold water, and sometimes proves fatal to their eggs, for in a rainy season we have often found it full. It lays four or five blue eggs, spotted with black at the larger end; their weight from eighty to ninety grains. The nest is j)laced sometimes on a stool or stump of a tree, very near the ground, or against the side of a tree, and frequently in a hedge or solitary bush. The Throstle remains in England the whole year, but is supposed to quit the more northern parts in winter. It is not, however, gregarious with us at any time, although it has been observed to pass through Livonia, Courland, and Prussia, together with the Missel and Fieldfares, in prodigiotts quantities about Michaelmas, in their flight to the Alps. Is said to be migratory in France, ■t'isiting Burgundy when the grapes are ripe, and doing great damage to the vineyards. In various parts of England is known by the names of Song Thrush, Mavis, and Greybird. A species of Thrush has been mentioned under the denomination of Heath Throstle; is said to have the breast darker and the tail shorter than this bird; but we have not sufficient grounds to believe it is dis- tinct from this. The food of the Throstle is insects and berries of various kinds; but it is particularlj’ fond of shelled snails, especially the Helix nemornlis, which it breaks by reiterated strokes against some stone. It is not uncommon to find a great quantity of fragment-shells together, as if brought to one particular stone for that purpose. SuiTi.EMENT. — This in some parts is called Grej'-bird and Storm-cock ; the last name is also applied to the Missel Thrush. The'Throstle, like others, is subject to some accidental variety; one in our pos- session is of a dun-colour above, paler be- neath, with the usual-shaped spots of the same colour as the back.$