258 



PASSERES. 



TURDID^, 



TURDIDA. 



TURDUS VISCIVORUS, Linnaeus*. 



THE MISTLETOE-THRUSH. 



Tardus visdvorus. 



THE MISTLETOE- THRUSH is one of the largest species of 

 the genus, and, though not so numerous anywhere as the 

 Song-Thrush and Blackbird, is yet nowadays very generally 

 diffused, as the evidence to be hereafter quoted will shew. 

 It is rather a shy bird, frequenting small woods, and the 

 high trees in hedges bounding large meadows ; but during 

 the breeding- season it becomes bold and quarrelsome, driv- 

 ing away larger birds from its haunts, so that in Wales, 

 according to Pennant, it has acquired the name of Pen y 

 llwyn, or master of the coppice. Though as a species 



* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 291 (1766). 



