24 IN NATURE'S WAYS 



harsh cry like a rattle. A wary bird, when 

 nesting he falls silent until disturbed, when by his 

 clamour he tells the secret of his nest's whereabouts. 



But the secret usually is easily discovered, as the 

 nest is set clearly in view, often on a fork high against 

 a tree-trunk : a large, somewhat untidy grassy and 

 mossy structure, plastered within, like the song- 

 thrush's, but lined with dry fine grass. There are 

 four eggs, very different from the blue black-marked 

 song-thrush's eggs, being blotched and spotted over 

 with purplish and brownish marks on a greyish-green 

 ground. 



After rearing their two or three broods the missel- 

 thrushes in midsummer begin roaming in small parties 

 about open country, "they retire," as Gilbert White 

 said, " to sheep-walks and wild commons." 



In autumn they delight in eating yew-berries. 

 Other favourite fruits are the berries of mountain-ash, 

 haws, and ivy-berries. But when not tempted by 

 fruit, the missel-thrush is a great devourer of worms, 

 snails, grubs, and all sorts of insects. 



Gilbert White noticed that they do not destroy the 

 fruit in gardens, like others of their kind, and that they 

 feed on the berries of mistletoe whence the name, 

 mistletoe, or missel-thrush. 



milk-lUbite Rooks 



"A gentleman in this neighbourhood had two milk-white rooks in 

 one nest. A booby of a carter, finding them before they were able 

 to fly, threw them down and destroyed them, to the regret of the 

 owner, who would have been glad to have preserved such a 

 curiosity in his rookery. I saw the birds myself nailed against the 

 end of a barn, and was surprised to find that their bills, legs, feet, 

 and claws were milk-white." 



