DERIVED FROM BIRDS AND FLOWERS. 255 



tumn, but its voice is not then prognostic of any 

 change of weather. The missel-thrush is a wild 

 and wary bird, keeping generally in open fields 

 and commons, heaths, and unfrequented places, 

 feeding upon worms and insects. In severe wea- 

 ther it approaches our plantations and shrubberies, 

 to feed on the berry of the misseltoe, the ivy, or 

 the scarlet fruit of the holly or the yew ; and should 

 the redwing or the fieldfare presume to partake of 

 these with it, we are sure to hear its voice in clat- 

 tering and contention with the intruders, until it 

 drives them from the place, though it watches and 

 attends, notwithstanding, to its own safety. In 

 April it begins to prepare its nest. This is large 

 and so openly placed, as would, if built in the 

 copse, infallibly expose it to the plunder of the 

 magpie and the crow, which at this season prey 

 upon the eggs of every nest they can find. To 

 avoid this evil, it resorts to our gardens and our 

 orchards, seeking protection from man, near whose 

 haunts those rapacious plunderers are careful of 

 approaching: yet they will at times attempt to 

 seize upon its eggs even there, when the thrush 

 attacks them and drives them away with a hawk- 

 like fury ; and the noisy warfare of the contending 

 parties occasionally draws our attention to them. 

 The call of the young birds to their parents for 

 food is unusually disagreeable, and reminds us of 

 the croak of a frog. The brood being reared, it 



