260 TURDID^. 



very easily discovered by any passer-by. The eggs measure 

 from 1-39 to 1*04 by from '9 to '81 in., and are four or five 

 in numljer, of a greenisli-wliite, blotched, spotted or suffused 

 with red-brown and dull reddish-lilac ; sometimes the 

 ground-colour is reddish-white, with dark markings. Two 

 broods are produced in the year, and during autumn and 

 winter the birds keep in small parties, probably composed of 

 members of the same family. 



Authors have accused the Mistletoe-Thrush of killing the 

 young of other birds ; but it seems to act differently in 

 France. There, according to M. Vian (Rev. de Zool. 1865, 

 p. 132), wherever this Thrush builds its nest a Cliafiinch 

 will do the like, either on the same tree or one close by, and 

 he explains the object of this strange association to be the 

 mutual protection of each from the attack of Pies ; for, on 

 the approach of one of those pillagers, the Chaffinch raises 

 a cry of alarm, whereupon the Thrush darts like an arrow 

 on the invader and drives him away. 



The flight of the Mistletoe-Thrush is rapid, but per- 

 formed by a succession of jerks. Its food consists of 

 worms, slugs and snails ; some fruit in the season ; and, 

 when they can be found, berries of all sorts, including those 

 of the mistletoe,* whence it derives its most common name. 



The Mistletoe-Thrush is now well known in all the coun- 



* Tliis fact was known to Aristotle, as his name (/^'//So^oj) for tlie bird shews. 

 Dr. Prior, in his ' Popular Names of British Plants' (p. 153)'gives the derivation 

 of Mistletoe, or its Old-English equivalent, Mistiltan, " from niistl, different, and 

 t(tn, twig, being so unlike the tree it grows upon" ; but the two learned friends 

 who supplied the substance of the last note think 7)iistl to be an unusual con- 

 traction of the unusual form mlstl'ic, which is a corruption of misUc (unlike), 

 while the Doctor's derivation, taken from Bosworth, is contradicted by the use of 

 the t in the Old High-German Mistil (mistletoe). This last, clearly the origin 

 of the first part of the plant's name, is probably from Mist, meaning dirt or 

 obscurity. The idea of dirt, from the viscosity of the berries, is most likely that 

 which is here attached to the word ; but it may refer to Mist, oue of the god- 

 desses of fate in the Northern mythology, and in this sense Mistletoe would sig- 

 nify "twig of fate," in connection with which there is a story in Snorri's ' Edda' 

 (chap. 49). Tan, it may be observed, still survives in English as the " tine' of 

 a fork or of a stag's antler. Anyhow it would seem that the proper name of 

 this bird should be written in full "Mistletoe-Thrush," and not, as commonly, 

 "Missel-Thrush." 



