THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 237 



Lund, the example in the museum of that town has the second 

 flight-feather only -07 hi. (2 mm.) longer than the sixth, and -20 in. 

 (5 mm.) shorter than the fifth ; the third and fourth flight-feathers are 

 the longest, and project about 21 in. (7 vim.) beyond the second. In 

 the preceding species, T. varius, the tip of the second flight-feather 

 comes closer to the fourth than to the fifth ; but in the present 

 species, T. dauma, it comes closer to the sixth than to the fifth: 

 hence in the former case it comes between the fourth and fifth, 

 and in the latter between the fifth and sixth. Both species are 

 very similar in colour and markings. The present species is a 

 resident breeding bu'd in the Himalayas, and, as far as is at present 

 known, has not been observed an3'-where else on European soil. 



65. — Missel Thrush [Misteldeossel]. 



T URDUS YISCIVORUS, Linn. 



Heligolandish : Snarker=iSf}!orec. 



Turdus viscivoms. Naumann, ii. 248. 



Missel Thrush. Dresser, ii. 262. 



Merle draiiu. Temminck, Manuel, i. 161, iii. 87. 



Of all the Thrushes which are residents of the neighbouring 

 continent, the Missel Thrush visits HeHgoland in the smallest 

 numbers ; even leaving out of consideration the extreme shj-ness 

 and cautiousness of the bird, it would be next to impossible to 

 obtain more than twenty examples here in the course of a whole 

 year. It is extremely rare to find this bird among the other cap- 

 tives of the throstle-bush, and to get at it on the bare surface of 

 the Highland Plateau with the gun is quite impossible. 



The bird counts among the earliest appearances of the spring 

 migration, arriving in dull and mild weather as early as the 

 beginning of February. As a rule, however, only one or two, rarely 

 more than three, birds are seen in the course of a day. In fact, 

 it is nowhere represented in such large numbers as are other 

 resident Thrush species, although it is distributed over the whole 

 of Europe and Asia, as far at least as Lake Baikal. Irby found 

 the nest at Gibraltar, Sewertzofl" in Turkestan, and WoUey obtained 

 both nests and eggs in Sweden and Finland as far as 68" X. 

 latitude. 



