2o6 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



so much as others already noticed, is the waxen berry 

 of the famous misseltoe. As the leaves fall from the 

 poplars and the hawthorns, the dense tufts of the para- 

 sitic misseltoe loom darkly out from the naked branches 

 and are conspicuous objects in the trees for miles. The 

 bird, which derives its English name from this plant, 

 the pugnacious Missel-thrush, is the principal feeder on 

 its waxen fruit. During the keen winter days, parties 

 of these noisy birds fly in struggling course from tree to 

 tree, uttering their harsh rasping cry. The Missel-thrush 

 helps largely to propagate the misseltoe by placing the 

 glutinous seeds which have chanced to cling to its beak 

 during feeding into the crevices of the bark as the bird 

 rubs that organ against the branches to free it from the 

 particles of berry. In specifying the various berries 

 which form the favourite winter fare of birds, we must 

 not fail to notice those mountain fruits such as bilberries 

 and cranberries, which are eagerly devoured by the Red 

 Grouse, the Capercailie, and the Ptarmigan. Even when 

 the snow lies thickly over the moorland wastes, these birds 

 burrow under the wreaths to regale themselves on this 

 store of berries. In many places these ground-fruits are 

 preserved under the snow until the following spring. 



Where the trees are laden with berries, there the 

 birds will congregate in winter-time. A flock of dusky 

 Starlings or speckled Thrushes, feeding in the elder- 

 trees in the garden, or near the swampy corner of the 



