OF SELBORNE. 223 
he is very successful in the defence of his family ; 
but once I observed in my garden that several mag. 
pies came determined to storm the nest of a missel- 
thrush ; the dams defended their mansion with great 
vigour, and fought resolutely pro aris et focis ; but 
numbers at last prevailed; they tore the nest to 
pieces, and swallowed the young alive.* 
iS S 
a 
eA\) 
CH SQL’. : 
In the season of nidification the wildest birds 
* Thrushes, during long droughts, are of great service in hunt- 
ing out shell-snails, which they pull in pieces for their young, 
and are thereby very serviceable in gardens. Missel-thrushes do 
not destroy the fruit in gardens like the other species of thrushes 
(turdi), but feed on the berries of mistletoe, and in the spring on 
ivy-berries, which then begin to ripen. In the summer, when 
their young become fiedged, they leave neighbourhoods, and re- 
tire to sheepwalks and wild commons. 
The tagpies, when they have young, destroy the broods of 
missel-thrushes, though the dams are fierce birds, and fight 
boldly in defence of their nests. It is probably to avoid such 
insults that this species of thrush, though wild at other times, 
delights to build near houses, and in frequented walks and gar- 
dens.— WHITE’s Observations on Birds. 
