THE SPECKLED THRUSHES 5 



dear to the mavis; but that he is free of. And when the 

 hard toil of feeding the young is over-past — for the fledg- 

 lings do not leave the nest till they can fly — the families 

 form flocks, and go a-foraging for food amongst the fruit 

 crops or along the upland hedgerows. Not much singing is 

 done after this flocking — the cares of life press too heavily 

 upon them. And when the dikes are ice and the marshes 

 slabs of snow, the mavises flock to the hawthorns, scarlet 

 with berries, whence their speckled breasts gleam in the 

 autumn sunshine, as they fight for the haws as parrots 

 wrangle over wild oranges. 



Mayhap at this season a keen-set sparrow-hawk swoops 

 down upon one here and there, and the biting cold kills many 

 more ; and though the flocks are increased by migrants from 

 over the seas, still, when winter is gone, and the fighting 

 season returns on foggy wing, their numbers are sadly 

 thinned. Nevertheless, they are not cursed (or blessed) with 

 memories ; and when the love impulse guides them to it, 

 again they burst into joyful song, and once more spring, 

 the season of the Lent lily, the primrose, the white violet, 

 and the pale flowers of the coppice is upon us, and our 

 hearts beat with gladness. 



T/ie Missel Thrush, or '^ Ftclfar" or " Yellow Fiilfar,^^ as 

 he is called on the marshes, is a better fighter but a poorer 

 minstrel than the mavis ; his temper is too hasty to allow 

 him to be a great artist. Yet 'tis a brave bird, fighting for 

 love unto death ; rolling over and over, struggling until one 

 slinks off into a corner to die, and leaves the victor to sing 

 heartily through the storms that sweep across the marsh- 

 land. Their fights take place in February, just before the 

 birds pair ; for the old Fulfar is one of the earliest birds to 

 begin his wattle and gutter-putty nest in the crotch of an oak, 

 wherein the four greenish eggs with rusty spots are laid. 



At this season they are "artful old seeds," as the farmers 

 say ; for do you approach their half-built cradles, and they 

 will sneak off at once, and never go near the nest until 



