Throttle forge
A thrush forge (occasionally snail smithy ) is a stone on which thrushes and other songbirds smash snail shells in order to get to their contents.
The song thrush in particular , but also other members of the thrush family, are avid eaters and thus natural predators of cepaea snails . Since they are unable to destroy the shell with their beak or to swallow the snail completely, they look for a suitable stone on which they can then smash the snail shell.
Since the thrushes always return to the same stone, one can easily identify a throttle forge by the accumulated remains of the snail shells.
See also
Web links
Commons : Drosselschmiede - Collection of images, videos and audio files
- Throttle forges of the song thrush ( Turdus philomelos ) on weichtiere.at