THE MISSEL THRUSH. 13 



1878 and January 1879/ a few birds of this species, which is 

 usually very wild and shy, came, along with Song Thrushes, 

 Eedwings, Fieldfares, Blackbirds, House Sparrows, Hedge 

 Sparrows, Eedbreasts, and Titmice of several kinds, to a 

 window-sill at Paxton House, and fed eagerly on crumbs of 

 bread and meat which were put out for them every morning. 

 The Missel Thrushes, Redwings, and Fieldfares were so 

 tamed by the severity of the weather that they fed while 

 people stood inside the window looking at them. 



For some years after the severe winters of 1878-81 it 

 seemed to be rather scarce in the county, but it has now 

 apparently recovered its usual numbers. Darwin, in his 

 Origin of Species, says that, where it becomes plentiful, it 

 drives away the Song Thrush, being a stronger bird. This 

 seems to have occurred in the neighbourhood of Chirnside 

 about 1868, for we find Dr. Stuart writing in that year, 

 that the Missel Thrush "is now so common that it has 

 driven away the Common Thrush or Mavis altogether, or 

 nearly so." " 



1 The winter of 1878-79 will be long remembered in the neighbourhood of 

 Paxton as one of the most severe and protracted which has been experienced 

 during the present century ; for the oldest people in the village say that they do 

 not recollect of a winter of such extraordinary severity, or of the snow lying so 

 long upon the ground without a thaw. For nearly nine successive weeks in 

 December, .January, and February, snow lay deep all over the ground, and ponds 

 and brooks were frozen. During that time also the Tweed was three times frozen 

 over from bank to bank opposite Paxton House, so that men could walk across 

 the river on the ice. The keenest frost occurred on the night of the 13th and 

 early on the morning of the 14th December, when the thermometer, at the height 

 of four feet from the ground, and fully exposed to tlie open air, marked no less 

 than 40° of frost, or 8° below zero. 



-■ Ilist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. ix. p. 332. 



