MISTLE-THRUSH 



453 



that the cock takes a certain, although minor, share in the duties of 

 incubation. The essential feature of the nest, which is usually placed 

 in a bush or shrub, but sometimes in the branches of a fir-tree, and is 

 built of grass with a small admixture of moss and twigs, is that it is 

 lined with mud, clay, or cow-dung, finished off with a coat of decayed 

 wood. Occasionally, in very dry seasons, the lining may be omitted. 

 The first clutch of from four to six of the well-known black-spotted blue 

 eggs is laid early in spring, and the young are hatched in about 

 thirteen days ; at least two broods are produced in a season. Uniformly 

 blue eggs are not very uncommon, and pale-coloured or white examples 

 of the adult bird occasionally occur. To distinguish it from other 

 species, the bird is termed song-thrush. 



The second resident British species of the true or 

 spotted thrushes is the mistle-thrush, or mistletoe- 

 thrush, a species easily distinguished from the song- 

 thrush by its superior size and heavier spotting of 

 the breast. With the exception of the rare White's thrush, the present 

 species is the largest British representative of the group, measuring 

 I 1 inches in length. In the cock 



Mistle-Thpush 



(Turdus 



viseivopus). 



the colour above is olive-brown, 

 while below it is huffish profusely 

 speckled on the breast with dark 

 fan-shaped spots, and on the 

 throat with arrowhead-markings, 

 the under surface of the wing 

 being white. A slightl)' paler 

 hue is distinctive of females. 

 In young birds the head is 

 ashy grey, with black tips to 

 the feathers of the crown ; the 

 feathers of the back have broad 

 buff-shaped streaks, and dark 

 brown tips, the wing-coverts 

 being similarly streaked but lack- 

 ing the dark tips ; with the ex- 

 ception of the throat, which is 

 white, the under-parts are tinged with fawn, and spotted with black. 

 With a range very similar to that of the song-thrush, the mistle- 

 thrush is a less common bird in the British Isles than the former. Of 

 late years it has, however, shown a decided increase in numbers, and 



!€^ 



HE ROWLAND WARD STUDIOS 



MISTLK-THKL'SH. 



