124 TURDUS VISCIVORUS. 



than they immediately attacked it, and did not desist until 

 they put it to flight. Except once or twice, they swallowed 

 the whole of the droppings of their family. 



" In this neighbourhood, during autumn, they assemble in 

 large flocks. On the 11th of August 1837, on the estate of Sir 

 William Baillie, Bart, of Polkemmet, about two miles from 

 Bathgate, I saw about seventy of them flying and feeding in 

 the same way as the Fieldfares ; and on the 8th of September, 

 near my house, I observed another large flock of them." 



Mr Archibald Hepburn has sent me the following notice : — 

 " Missel Thrushes are very wary birds. When they como 

 to our garden to eat the berries of the yew, holly, ivy, or moun- 

 tain-ash, they alight on a row of tall willow-trees to see if they 

 may remain with safety, and on finding matters according to 

 their wishes, descend to the feast, making a prodigious noise. 

 They are very quarrelsome. The snow is lying four inches deep 

 (January 5, 1839) ; a dozen of Missels are in the garden feed- 

 ing on the berries of the common and Irish yew and holly, 

 quarrelling amongst themselves, driving off the Blackbirds and 

 Song Thrushes, and even pursuing them on foot round the 

 roots of the evergreens, all the v/hile uttering their hax'sh notes. 

 In autumn I have seen them pursued by Sparrows and Chaf- 

 finches, but whether in sport or anger I could not say. In the 

 parish of Carnwath, county of Lanark, I have seen several 

 flocks of fifty or sixty birds in one day ; their great numbers 

 there lead me to supjjose that they must migrate from other 

 districts. Here you seldom see more than a dozen in a flock. 

 The last time I heard the Missel Thrush singing was on the 

 18th of October." 



This species has obtained its common name from its being 

 supposed to feed by preference on the berries of the misseltoe, 

 Viscum album, a curious parasitic plant, abundant on apple 

 and other trees in many parts of England, but extremely rare 

 in the south of Scotland, and I believe not found in any other 

 part of that country. According to Pliny, the misseltoe will 

 not grow unless from seeds that have passed through the in- 

 testines of birds, especially Thrushes and Wood Pigeons, and 

 many authors have adopted the erroneous notion that the bird 



