THE MISSEL-THRUSH. 33 



You will also find in studying the economy of the Missel- 

 thrush that he is never seen to skulk and hide under 

 the evergreens and lowly shrubs, but is generally found 

 amongst the higher branches, shy and vigilant at all 

 times, and taking wing the instant he is alarmed. 



From what I have observed, the Missel-thrush pairs 

 somewhere about the first week in February, and at that 

 season the birds are very pugnacious. I was once a 

 witness to one of these combats between two males : a 

 female was in their company. After much discordant 

 language, harsh blows, and not a few warlike motions, 

 one of the birds was evidently vanquished, and retired 

 to a tree close at hand. The now victorious male went 

 off in another direction, in company with the female, and 

 I have no doubt a union was formed between them. 

 These birds frequent the locality of their nest weeks 

 before a twig is laid in furtherance of it. Every day the 

 observer may hear their harsh cries and the lovely notes 

 of the male in one locality, and he may rest assured, if 

 he does not molest them, that there their nest will be. 

 Another noteworthy habit of this bird, in common with 

 many other species, is its singularly trustful disposition 

 in the breeding season ; yet at all other times of the 

 year he is one of the most difficult birds to approach, 

 and shuns, except in fruit time and the keenest weather, 

 man's habitation with scrupulous care. 



Missel-thrushes commence building early in March, 

 and their eggs often suffer from the inclement weather 

 which not unfrequently occurs at that season. I have 

 found many nests of this bird forsaken, though the full 

 complement of eggs was deposited, the nests being filled 

 with snow, and the eggs frozen hard as stones. Almost 

 every forest tree is destined to contain the nest of the 

 Missel-thrush. We find it in the yew shrubs, a few feet 



D 



