Song thrush "Turdus", is the Latin for "thrush", and the specific epithet refers to a character in Greek mythology, Philomela, who had her tongue cut out, but was changed into a singing bird. Her name is derived from the Ancient Greek "Φιλο" "philo-" ("loving"), and "μέλος" "melos" ("song"). The dialect names "throstle" and "mavis" both mean "thrush", being related to the German "drossel" and French "mauvis" respectively. "Throstle" dates back to at least the fourteenth century and was used by Chaucer in the "Parliament of Fowls". Mavis is derived via Middle English "mavys" and Old French "mauvis" from Middle Breton "milhuyt" meaning
Song thrush each song twice over, Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture! The song also inspired the nineteenth-century British writer Thomas Hardy, who spoke in "Darkling Thrush" of the bird's "full-hearted song evensong/Of joy illimited", but twentieth-century British poet Ted Hughes in "Thrushes" concentrated on its hunting prowess: "Nothing but bounce and/stab/and a ravening second". Nineteenth-century Welsh poet Edward Thomas wrote 15 poems concerning blackbirds or thrushes, including "The Thrush": I hear the thrush, and I see Him alone at the end of the lane Near the bare poplar's tip, Singing continuously. In "The Tables