BIRDS AND STORM 287 



a habit of resorting to some bare spot, such as 

 the highest part of a grass or stubble field, and 

 preening their feathers there in very quiet and 

 undemonstrative company. When the wind is very 

 high, these chosen spots are never without their 

 congregation. Hundreds of gulls may be seen 

 in such a place sitting absolutely motionless for 

 hours on end, with all their beaks pointing as 

 accurately in one direction as if they were so many 

 magnets drawn to a pole. In very windy weather 

 there is no doubt that gulls, in 'common with all 

 shore birds, have to get along on seriously 

 diminished fare. Their best feeding-ground is the 

 strip of shore just uncovered by the tide, on which 

 small crustacean life is yet unhidden. When the 

 waves are dashing savagely on the strand, and 

 racing far up it with every fall, every condition is 

 against successful hunting. 



One of the popular names of the missel-thrush 

 is the stormcock, and it has received it in deference, 

 it is said, to the fact that, unlike the other birds 

 of its family, it sings in winter, and is not silenced 

 by stormy weather. There is a courageous robust- 

 ness about every action of the missel-thrush which 

 claims admiration, but I rather suspect that it 

 does not sing very often in storm 1 . At any rate, 

 I have never heard it. It is called missel -thrush 

 because it feeds on the mistletoe berries. There 

 are, however, large parts of Britain Scotland 

 among them where the mistletoe is never seen 

 save as an import, and there the familiar name 

 itself is a misnomer. In stormy weather those 

 three familiar birds of the garden the missel- 



