92 WITHIN AN HOUR OF LONDON TOWN. 



ture, that " the stork in the heavens knoweth her 

 appointed time." The most accepted theories are 

 apt to break down, and so-called learned men have 

 been found to be in error occasionally on simpler 

 matters even than this. At the present time, 1890, 

 it has been universally acknowledged by our greatest 

 field naturalists men who have visited all parts of 

 Great Britain, even the remote Shetlands as well as 

 the Continent, in their earnest researches that the 

 breeding-place of a few of the small waders that 

 crowd some of our shores in the fall of the year 

 remains to this day unknown, although the young 

 ones are seen with the nest-down still among their 

 feathers. Why the ring -ouzel comes and goes, 

 sometimes singly, sometimes in flock, is also a 

 mystery. 



The name of "storm-cock" has been fitly given 

 to the missel-thrush, which is the largest member 

 of the thrush family. He is more a bird of the 

 woods, except in breeding or nesting time, than 

 any of the others. To a certain extent he is a 

 more showy bird than his very near relative the 

 song-thrush ; his breast is more brightly coloured, 

 and the spots on it are larger and darker. He is 



