BIRDS THRUSHES 13 



They say that there is in Switzerland a law 

 which forbids the shooting of any bird with- 

 out a licence. If some such law could be 

 enforced here, rare birds that seek hospitality 

 among us would no longer be at the mercy 

 of every idle lout who happens to have a 

 gun. And is it impossible that children 

 might be taught to find pleasure in watching, 

 and not, as seems generally the case now, in 

 destroying life? 



We often have a pair of missel-thrushes 

 (" shercocks " in Cheshire) nesting here. 

 Generally they build in a tree at some 

 distance away, where they make their pre- 

 sence known by noisy attacks on other birds ; 

 but once they had their nest in a Scotch fir 

 close to the house, and then they were so 

 quiet as almost to escape notice altogether. 



There were two nests in the old churchyard 

 this year (1912). One in a Spanish Chestnut 

 was about thirty feet from the ground, in 

 the middle of a clump of little shoots that 

 grew straight up on the top side of a thick 

 branch. This branch overhangs a patch of 

 grass running close to the boundary wall and 

 on this green boys were playing football with 

 much shouting and noise every evening. 

 The nest stood out plainly to be seen, and for 

 a week before they flew (which they did on 

 April 2Oth) you could easily count all four 

 young ones. The other nest was in a yew, 

 under which there is a seat in summer, and 



