CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS 



MANY birds are opportunists; witness the way the 

 garden robin appears on the scene as the 

 Thrushes gardener takes spade in hand, and how the 

 and Moles skua chases the fishing gulls till they dis- 

 gorge their catch for his benefit. The 

 thrush has an eye for moles ; it is an old sign of frost 

 breaking when thrushes probe mole-hills for worms. 

 A remarkable instance of a thrush working on the 

 principle " Opportunity is bald behind," was noted 

 when one was eagerly following the tunnellings 

 of an invisible mole just below a lawn's surface, 

 gobbling up such worms as managed to escape the 

 mole's jaws. 



CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS 



ONCE again this week, as of old, 



Forth to the wood did merry men go 

 77^ To gather in the mistletoe. 



Mistletoe i t j s a cur i ous reflection how badly the 

 Bough birds have been treated, since time out of 

 mind, by Christmas raids on holly and 

 mistletoe, whose berries, ripening late, form a useful 

 reserve of food. And both holly and mistletoe were 

 esteemed by the fowler for making bird-lime. The 

 word mistletoe is traced to the Anglo-Saxon mistl, glue, 

 and tan, twig. So the grey thrush, named mistletoe 

 thrush from its delight in the berries, would find the 

 favourite food-plant turned treacherously to its un- 

 doing ; and still has cause of complaint in our Christmas 

 use of the sacred mistletoe bough. 

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