re an especially important food item when drought or hard weather makes it hard to find other food. The thrush often uses a favorite stone as an "anvil" on which to break the shell of the snail before extracting the soft body and invariably wiping it on the ground before consumption. Young birds initially flick objects and attempt to play with them until they learn to use anvils as tools to smash snails. The nestlings are mainly fed on animal food such as worms, slugs, snails and insect larvae. The grove snail (Cepaea nemoralis) is regularly eaten by the song thrush, and its polymorphic shell patterns have been suggested as evolutionary responses to reduce predation; however, song thrush