BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE iMISSEL-THRUSH. 



TuRDUS viscivoRUS, Linnceus. 



The Missel-Thrush, the largest indigenous species of the genus, 

 has, owing to the increase of plantations during the present century, 

 extended its breeding-range northward to Caithness and Suther- 

 land, and to most of the Hebrides ; though to the Orkneys it is only 

 a straggler, and has not yet been recorded from the Shetlands. 

 Unknown in Ireland until about the year t8oo, it is now a resident 

 and increasing species there ; while in England and Wales it is 

 of general distribution, being commoner in the wooded districts. 

 Migration takes place from the colder portions of our islands in 

 autumn and winter, when large flocks arrive from the Continent. 



It breeds from Bodo in Norway southward, throughout the 

 suitable portions of temperate Europe to the extremity of the 

 Spanish Peninsula, and even in Northern Africa ; eastward, in 

 Turkey, the Caucasus, the mountain forests of Asia Minor, Turkestan, 



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