54 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
does not possess the mellow tones and variety of modn- 
lation of the song thrush or blackbird, yet it is no mean 
songster, and much more attractive than some authors 
describe it. I have heard the woods ring again with its 
music, the height at which it perches while singing (gene- 
rally on the extreme point of a tall larch) effectually 
subduing the loudness of its song, which is much greater 
than that of either of the two I have mentioned. The 
absence of other songsters during the months when it is 
most in song makes its music the more welcome. I have 
heard it frequently about the 19th or 20th of January, 
sometimes when the day was fine and sunny, at others 
when it was cold and stormy, as befits its best-known 
name of the “storm cock.” I must confess that to me 
its song ringing at such times has a very charming effect ; 
and, instead of its “loud, untuneful voice,” as Mr. Knapp 
calls it, “ being like that of an enchanter calling up a 
gale,” it has seemed to me to herald forth with gleesome 
heart the approach of the more genial days of spring. 
The reputed favourite food of this thrush, the berries of 
the mistletoe, is most abundant in the district, growing 
chiefly on the whitethorn. I have no doubt that the 
missel thrush assists greatly in the propagation of this 
curious parasite; I used to think that the idea of the 
seeds germinating after passing through its stomach a 
mistaken one, for I conceived that the action of the 
gizzard and stomach would effectually destroy all their 
vitality, but in this I must confess myself mistaken. Its 
agency as a disseminator of the plant is exercised also in 
another way. The berries are exceedingly viscid, and 
the seeds frequently cling tenaciously to the bill of the 
bird, who, to rid itself of them, is compelled to rub its 
bill on the bough of a tree, and thus the seeds are un- 
