THE MISSEL THRUSH 159 



MISSEL THRUSH. In the northern parts of the kingdom this bird 

 is rather uncommon, though met with in many districts, and when 

 taking to devouring fruit is very severe in its depredations. In 

 recent years its distribution has become more general, possibly a 

 consequence of the closer preservation of game and the restrictions 

 on bird-nesting, and in some localities has so multiplied as to be 

 regarded by fruit-growers as one of the worst birds to fruit, 

 particularly in some of the southern counties. It is specially trouble- 

 some with cherries and soft fruits, and after these persistently 

 eats pears, apples, plums and damsons. In the north of England 

 we have found it most destructive to currants, particularly red, 

 though it will take black currants. But where wild fruit or berries 

 are plentiful it does not trouble gardeners seriously; but feeds 

 on wild or covert plants and berries, many game preservers having 

 introduced berry-bearing plants to coverts as food for pheasants 

 in recent years ; and in not a few localities there are large breaks of 

 raspberries, currants, and even gooseberries, that have sprung up 

 naturally from seeds assumed to have been carried there by bird 

 pilferers from gardens. These wild or semi-wild fruits species of 

 Berberis, Ribes, Rubus, Rosa, Crataegus, Cotoneaster, Prunus, 

 Pyrus, Ilex, Hedera, Juniperus, and Taxus afford a supply of 

 food for the thrush family, and it has been suggested that wild fruits 

 should be planted in close proximity to orchards and fruit-plan- 

 tations so that birds may be attracted and kept out of mischief. 

 Certainly this is desirable from an ornamental point of view, and 

 also when the woods are some distance from the fruit plantations, 

 it also being right that those protecting wild birds should provide 

 food so as to keep them from going astray ; but what of the fungoid 

 and insect pests that would be fostered on wild plants and thence 

 make inroads on the cultivated fruits of the same species ? 



Alas ! there is no help for the fruit-grower but the destruction 

 of the eggs when the bird is relatively tame, and shooting when it 

 will not content itself with wild fruits, it being too wary for capture 

 by trapping. Its utility is measured by the destruction of cater- 

 pillars, beetles and other insects, slugs, snails, and worms. The 

 birds are usually found in pairs, in summer time, and later on in 

 small flocks, when they are shy and wild; even in attacking a crop 

 the paired birds keep in close company, and are not easily approached 

 within gunshot. Mistletoe berries, however, are a tempting bait, 

 their fondness for them being noted by Aristotle, and one compensa- 

 tion for the disagreeable task of killing them is that of their being 

 good for food. 



SONG THRUSH. For eight or nine months of the year this bird 

 feeds solely on snails, slugs, worms and ground insects, wild fruits 

 and roots, such as the " cuckoo pint," in severe weather. Only when 

 garden and fruit plantation fruits are ripening does it become a 

 nuisance. Reared in shrubberies, hedges, thickets, and woods, 



