ORDER PASSERES 
FAMILY TURDIDZ 
Sus-Famity TURDIN/ 
THE MISTLE (OR MISSEL) THRUSH 
TURDUS VISCIVORUS 
Upper plumage ash brown; space between the bill and eye greyish white ; 
wing-coverts edged and tipped with greyish white; under parts white, 
faintly tinged here and there with reddish yellow, marked all over with 
deep brown spots, which on the throat and breast are triangular, in other 
parts oval, broader on the flanks; under wing-coverts white; three 
lateral tail feathers tipped with greyish white. Length eleven inches ; 
breadth eighteen inches. Eggs greenish or reddish white, spotted with 
brownish red. Young spotted on the head and back with buff and black. 
THE largest British song bird, distinguished from the Song Thrush 
not only by its superior size, but by having white under wing-coverts, 
and the whole of the under part of the body buffish-white, 
spotted with black. Itis a generally diffused bird, andis known by 
various local names ; in the west of England its popular name is 
Holm Thrush, or Holm Screech, derived most probably, not, as Yarrell 
surmises, from its resorting to the oak in preference to other trees, 
but from its feeding on the berries of the holly, or holm; the title 
‘Screech’ being given to it from its jarring note when angry or alarm- 
ed, which closely resembles the noise made by passing the finger-nail 
rapidly along the teeth of a comb. Its French name, ‘ Draine’, 
and German, ‘ Schnarre’, seem to be descriptive of the same harsh 
‘churr’. In Wales, it has from its quarrelsome habits acquired 
the name of Penn y llwyn, or, master of the coppice. Another 
of its names, Throstle Cock, expresses its alliance with the Thrushes, 
and its daring nature; and another Storm Cock, indicates ‘not 
that it delights in storms more than in fine weather, but that 
nature has taught it to pour forth its melody at a time of the year 
when the bleak winds of winter roar through the leafless trees’. 
The song of the Mistle Thrush is loud, wild, and musical. Waterton 
calls it ‘plaintive’, Knapp ‘harsh and untuneful’. I must 
B.B. ij B 
