37 



MISSEL THBUSH. 



PENN Y LLWIN, OP THE ANCIENT BRITISH. 



MISSELTOE THRUSH. STORM-COCK. MISSEL-BIRD. SHRITE. SHRIKE-COCK. 



HOLM THRUSH. 



PLATE XCVin. 



Turdus viscivorus, LixyjErs. LATHAM. 



Merula viscivora, SELBT. 



THE nest, which is a loose structure, is a compilation of twigs, small 

 sticks, straws, grasses, leaves, lichens, wool, or mosses, compacted 

 inwardly with mud, mixed with grasses and small roots, and lined with 

 finer grasses, roots, and moss, frequently with grass alone; sometimes 

 the outside is partly covered with lichens and mosses. The width is 

 about four inches and a half, the depth two and three fourths, and the 

 thickness of the sides an inch and three quarters. Mr. Hewitson 

 mentions one nest of which the foundation was of mud, strongly 

 cemented to, and nearly encircling the branches between which it was 

 fixed. It is often placed in very exposed situations in the hollow caused 

 by the divergence of the branches from the trunk, at a height of ten 

 or fifteen feet from the ground, but nevertheless the erection of it has 

 often not been observed until after it has been fully completed. In 

 1848 one was taken on a high bough of a large elm at Swanscombe, 

 in Kent, as Mr. M. C. Cooke has informed me. W. Bridger, Esq. has 

 obligingly forwarded a nest. 



Shy, too, as the bird is at other times, in its nidification it is not 

 deterred from any appropriate situation by the near propinquity of a 

 house, even where persons are constantly passing and repassing. This 

 has been noticed in repeated instances, and has occurred close to my 



