THE THRUSH GENUS 349 



ouzel being relieved by the white crescent on the breast. The 

 females of both the latter species are more or less dusky brown. 

 The young of the whole genus, and indeed of the whole sub-family 

 (Turdince) are spotted, a fact which is held to be one of the proofs of 

 the common ancestry of the group. 



In their feeding habits, outside the breeding season, our six 

 common British Thrushes are much alike except with respect to the 

 extent of their gregariousness. Fieldfares and redwings seldom feed 

 except in company. The mistle-thrush may be seen feeding in 

 families, and later in the season both in flocks and pairs, a peculiarity 

 to which we shall revert. Neither the song-thrush nor the black- 

 bird can be said to feed gregariously, except when pausing to rest 

 during their migratory movements. Several of either or both species 

 may sometimes be seen in more or less close proximity, but these 

 are merely temporary aggregations due to the presence of a number 

 of individuals on a common feeding-ground. They are broken up 

 as soon as the birds take flight, each individual then making off 

 without paying any attention to the course followed by the others. 

 The same, no doubt, applies to the blackbirds which, in the berry 

 season, have been noted congregating in the hedge-rows. 1 



A weakness for berries is common to all our Thrushes, not exclud- 

 ing the ring-ouzel, which will linger on the east coast for days before 

 departing to its continental winter-quarters in order to eat haws and 

 the acid fruit of the sea-buckthorn. 2 These berry-feasts by no means 

 tend to promote harmonious relations between the several species, a 

 fact well illustrated by Mr. Seaby's drawing of the mistle-thrush (PL 34), 

 which shows one of this species debating the law of property with a 

 fieldfare and getting the best of it. The usual method of eating is 

 to pluck ofl' the berry, which, after being held stationary for a moment 

 between the mandibles, is swallowed whole. An inspection of the 

 ground near trees hawthorns, yew, mountain-ash and others on 

 which thrushes have been feeding will reveal the fact not only that 



1 Warde Fowler, A Year with the Birds, 1886, p. 19. 2 Nelson, Birds of Yorkshire. 



