The eggs are five in number, and in colour are a beautiful pale blue, with a few small black or purplish-mauve spots towards the larger end, these markings being in some cases entirely lacking. After a fortnight’s incubation the young are hatched; they are then almost naked and only slightly covered with down. Incubation is carried on by the hen alone, but both birds assist in the feeding, the diet consisting almost entirely of earth-worms. In about a fortnight to three weeks after the young are hatched they leave the nest to find and earn their own living, whilst their parents busy themselves with the cares of another family, for a pair of birds generally rears three broods in the season. After the rearing of the last brood, which is over by the end of June or early in July, both old and young begin to moult. Consequently, at this time of year they are very quiet and skulking in their habits, but we may sometimes catch sight of them in the evenings and early mornings when they come out to feed on lawns and fields where the grass is short and where their favourite earth-worms abound. About the end of August a close observer will often miss his little friend for a few days or even weeks. Then one morning he will again see the familiar figure on the lawn and think that perhaps his companion has returned. But it is not so. The spring visitor has gone to another part of the country, probably not very far away, as this species is only a partial migrant, but nevertheless he has gone, and the bird which has taken his place has come from some more northerly locality to spend the winter. Probably we do not notice the change, and put down the temporary disappearance of our particular Song Thrush to the fact that we chanced not to see him. It is not so, however, for our friend of spring and summer has departed. The general colour above, including mantle and wings, is uniform olive brown, some of the major and median covers having buffish tips. Breast yellowish, spotted with triangular olive-brown spots, the flanks uniformly olive, chin and throat white, margined with a row of dark streaks. Belly white. Bill brown, base of lower mandible paler. Legs pale flesh. Iris hazel. Length 9·0 in.; wing 4·6 in. Young birds are spotted on the upper parts. This species is widely and generally distributed throughout the British Isles. THE REDWING Turdus iliacus, Linnæus