the thrush; a genus of birds belonging to the order of Passeres. The bill is straightish, bending towards the point, and slightly notched near the end of the upper mandible. The nostrils are oval, naked or half covered with a membrane; the corners of the mouth are furnished with a few slender hairs, and the tongue is slightly jagged at the end. There are 136 species; of which 7 are British, the vicivorus, pilaris, iliacus, muficus, rofus, merula, and torquatus.
1. The vicivorus, or miffel, is the largest of the genus. Its length is 11 inches; its breadth 16½. The bill is shorter and thicker than that of other thrushes; dusky, except the base of the lower mandible, which is yellow. The irides are hazel. Head, back, and lesser coverts of the wings, are of a deep olive brown. The lower part of the back is tinged with yellow. The lowest part of lesser coverts, and the great coverts, are brown; the first tipped with white, the last both tipped and edged with the same colour. The inner coverts of the wings white. The tail is brown; the three outermost feathers tipped with white. The cheeks and throat are mottled with brown and white; the breast and belly are whitish yellow, marked with large spots of black; the legs are yellow.
These birds build their nests in bushes, or on the side of some tree, generally an ash, and lay four or five eggs: their note of anger or fear is very harsh, between a chatter and shriek; from whence some of its English names. Its song, however, is very fine; which it begins fitting on the summit of a high tree, very early in the spring, often with the new-year, in blowing showery weather, which makes the inhabitants of Hampshire to call it the florm-cock. It feeds on insects, holly and mistletoe berries, which are the food of all the thrush kind: in severe snowy weather, when there is a failure of their usual diet, they are observed to scratch out of the banks of hedges the root of arum, or the cuckoo pint; this is remarkably warm and pungent, and a provision suitable to the season.
2. The pilaris, or fieldfare, is in length 10 inches, in breadth 17. The head is ash coloured inclining to olive, and spotted with black; the back and greater coverts of the wings of a fine deep chestnut; the tail is black; the lower parts of the two middlemost feathers, and the interior upper sides of the outmost feathers excepted; the first being ash coloured, the latter white. The legs are black; the talons very strong.
This bird passes the summer in the northern parts of Europe; also in Lower Austria. It breeds in the largest trees; feeds on berries of all kinds, and is very fond of those of the juniper. Fieldfares visit our islands in great flocks about Michaelmas, and leave us the latter end of February or the beginning of March.
These birds and the redwings were the turdi of the Romans, which they fattened with crumbs of figs and bread mixed together. Varro informs us that they were birds of passage, coming in autumn, and departing in the spring. They must have been taken in great numbers; for, according to Varro (lib. 3. c. 5.) they were kept by thousands together in their fattening aviaries. They do not arrive in France till the beginning of December.
3. The myiusrus, or thrustle, is in length 9 inches, in breadth 13½. In colour, it so nearly resembles the miffel-thrush, that no other remark need to be added, but that it is lefs, and that the inner coverts of the wings are yellow.
The thrustle is the finest of our singing birds, not only for the sweetness and variety of its notes, but for the long continuance of its harmony; for it obliges us with its song for near three parts of the year. Like the miffel-bird, it delivers its music from the top of some high tree; but to form its nest descends to some low bush or thicket: the nest is made of earth, moss, and straw, and the inside is curiously plastered with clay. It lays five or fix eggs, of a pale bluish green, marked with dusky spots.
4. The iliacus, or redwing, has a very near resemblance to the thrustle; but is lefs; their colours are much the same; only the sides under the wings and the inner coverts in this are of a reddish orange, in the thrustle yellow; above each eye is a line of yellowish white, beginning at the bill and passing towards the hind part of the head.
These birds appear in Great Britain a few days before the field-fare; they come in vast flocks, and from the same countries as the latter. With us they have only a disagreeable piping note; but in Sweden, during the spring, they sing very finely, perching on the top of some tree among the forests of maples. They build their nests in hedges, and lay fix bluish-green eggs spotted with black.
5. The merula, or black-bird, when it has attained its full age, is of a fine deep black, and the bill of a bright yellow; the edges of the eyelids yellow. When young, the bill is dusky, and the plumage of a rusty black, so that they are not to be distinguished from the females; but at the age of one year they attain their proper colour.
This bird is of a very retired and solitary nature; frequents hedges and thickets, in which it builds earlier than any other bird: the nest is formed of moss, dead grass, fibres, &c. lined and plastered with clay, and that again covered with hay or small straw. It lays four or five eggs of a bluish-green colour, marked with irregular dusky spots. The note of the male is extremely fine, but too loud for any place except the woods; it begins to sing early in the spring, continues its music part of the summer, desists in the moulting season, but resumes it for some time in September and the first winter-months.
6. The torquatus, or ring-ouzel, is superior in size to the black bird; the length is 11 inches, breadth 17. The bill in some is wholly black, in others the upper half is yellow; on each side the mouth are a few brittles; the head and whole upper part of the body are dusky, edged with pale brown; the quill-feathers and the tail are black. The coverts of the wings, the upper part of the breast, and the belly, are dusky, slightly edged with ash-colour. The middle of the breast is adorned with a white crescent, the horns of which point to the hind part of the neck. In some birds this is of a pure white, in others of a dirty hue. In the females and in young birds this mark is wanting, which gave occasion to some naturalists to form two species of them.
The ring-ouzel inhabits the Highland hills, the north of England, and the mountains of Wales. They are also found to breed in Dartmoor, in Devonshire, and in Banks on the sides of streams. The places of their retreat are not known. In Scotland and Wales they breed in the hills, but descend to the lower parts to feed on the berries of the mountain ash. They migrate in France at the latter season; and appear in small flocks about Monthard in Burgundy, in the beginning or October, but seldom stay above two or three weeks.
To these we shall add the description of the polyglottus, or mocking thrush, which is a native of America. It is about the size of a thrush, of a white and grey colour, and a reddish bill. It is possessed not only of its own natural notes, which are musical and solemn, but it can assume the tone of every other animal in the wood, from the wolf to the raven. It seems even to sport itself in leading them astray. It will at one time allure the lesser birds with the call of their mates, and then terrify them when they have come near with the scream of the eagle. There is no bird in the forest but it can mimic; and there is none that it has not at times deceived by its call. But, unlike such as we usually see tamed for mimicking with us, and who have no particular merit of their own, the mock bird is ever surest to please when it is most itself. At those times it usually frequents the houses of the American planters; and sitting all night on the chimney-top, pours forth the sweetest and the most various notes of any bird whatever. It would seem, if accounts be true, that the deficiency of most other song-birds in that country is made up by this bird alone. They often build their nests in the fruit-trees about houses, feed upon berries and other fruits, and are easily rendered domestic.
TURR (Viscount). See T'OUR.