208 BRITISH BIRDS. 
The haunts of the Missel-Thrush are considerably diversified, the rich, 
well-cultivated districts and the borders of the moorlands being equally 
tenanted by them. In the former situation it 1s usually found in the 
neighbourhood of large gardens, in orchards, shrubberies, small woods, and 
plantations, and especially in well-wooded parks and pleasure-grounds. 
On the borders of the upland wilds it frequents the fir-plantations, wooded 
roughs, and the banks of mountain-streams and coppices of birch and 
alder. The Missel-Thrush is found in Great Britain throughout the year; 
but it is subject to some little internal migration. For instance, the birds. 
that frequent the upland districts in summer retire to the lower lands in 
winter ; and birds from the more isolated woods and coppices draw nearer 
to the cultivated districts should the weather be severe. But these re- 
marks apply to our indigenous birds alone. The rigours of a northern 
winter send the Missel-Thrush southwards; and considerable numbers of 
these migrants remain on our shores throughout the winter, arriving at 
the same time as the Fieldfare, with which bird they often associate. 
Although for the greater part of the year the Missel-Thrush is a non- 
gregarious bird, still in the early autumn, when the breeding-season is 
over, and the young birds are strong on the wing, a sociable disposition 
manifests itself. The birds are then seen in little parties; and as the 
autumn progresses they congregate in considerable flocks, very often being 
mistaken for early arrivals of Fieldfares. At this season the Missel- 
Thrushes are extremely wild and wary, and are usually seen on the turnip- 
fields or newly-ploughed lands in the early morning, and later in the 
day on the grass-fields and stubbles. In the turnip-fields they choose 
the parts where the crop has been cleared off, and, as a rule, do not skulk 
under the broad leaves, like the Song-Thrush ; but they are, nevertheless, 
easily alarmed, and take wing the instant danger threatens, rising into the 
air, and flying from tree to tree, uttering their harsh and grating cries 
both as they fly and when they are at rest in the tree-tops. As the year 
begins to wane and the leafless twigs tell of the approach of winter, these 
bands of Missel-Thrushes, from some unknown cause, disperse; and for 
the rest of the winter the birds either live in solitude or congregate in 
small parties only. Although in the nesting-season few birds excel the 
Missel-Thrush in trustfulness, at all other times of the year he is a shy 
and wary bird, and rarely comes near houses, save when hard pressed for 
food. Missel-Thrushes, as a rule, fly much higher than Song-Thrushes 
or Blackbirds. They are capable of flying with great swiftness, and have 
considerable command over themselves in the air—witness their motions 
round the head of an intruder when in the neighbourhood of their nest. 
At other times they fly with a series of rapid beats with but short intervals 
of cessation, and with but very little undulation. The Missel-Thrush 
