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Whereon he shouted through the wall, "Good night, old song-thrush; I suppose I need not pay the musicians." "What, awake?" answered Frank. "Come in here, and lull me to sleep with a sea-song." So Amyas went in, and found Frank laid on the outside of his bed not yet undrest. "I am a bad sleeper," said he; "I spend more time, I fear, in burning the midnight oil than prudent men should.
Indeed, you can hardly realize, unless you have almost lived their life, what the snow and the frost mean to all the thrush people, but more especially to the common song-thrush and the redwing. At the worst it means death; at the best, little more than a living death. However, to race the snow were useless.
If you hear the note of the song-thrush during frost it is sure to rain within a few hours; it is the first sign of the weather breaking up. During the summer the numerous brooks and ponds about town are apparently partially deserted by these birds; at least they are not to be seen by casual wayfarers.
Every mild day in November the thrushes sing; there are meadows where one may be certain to hear the song-thrush. In the dip or valley at Long Ditton there are several meadows well timbered with elm, which are the favourite resorts of thrushes, and their song may be heard just there in the depth of winter, when it would be possible to go a long distance on the higher ground without hearing one.
He surprised everybody by suddenly charging at the thrush on the lawn near him with a murderous ferocity that took one's breath away. It certainly would have taken away that of the other song-thrush, if our friend had not knocked it out of him by the impact.
A missel-thrush on the bare pear tree sang triumphantly through the rain, and a song-thrush, with more melodious notes, trilled forth an occasional call; the robin, which had haunted the garden all the winter, was scraping energetically for grubs among the ivy on the wall, and scarcely troubled to fly away at her approach.
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