MISSEL THRUSH. 169 



Shy, too, as the bird is at other times, in its nidification it 

 is not deterred from any appropriate situation by the near 

 propinquity of a house, even where persons are constantly 

 passing and repassing. This has been noticed in repeated 

 instances, and lias occurred close to my own residence of 

 Nafferton Vicarage, within a dozen yards of the house, and 

 with hardly any attempt at concealment. The same tree will 

 be often returned to year after year, if the birds be undisturbed, 

 and Frederick Bond, Esq., of Kingsbury, has known the same 

 nest used twice in the same season. They will suffer other 

 species to build near to them, so close as within a foot 

 distance, and that without any molestation even during the 

 time of incubation, when to those who casually approach their 

 nest they display unqualified hostility. 



The eggs are from three or four to five in number, of a 

 greenish or reddish white colour, spotted irregularly with 

 reddish brown or purple red: they vary in size as well as in 

 colour. 



Two broods are produced in the year, and the young of 

 the first sometimes unite with those of the second in one 

 flock. 



Male; weight, nearly five ounces; length, eleven inches and 

 a half; bill, dark brown, the upper mandible pale j^ellow at 

 its base from its base a cream-coloured streak goes over the 

 eye; iris, dark brown. Head on the sides, yellowish white, 

 on the crown, neck on the back, and nape, greyish olive 

 brown; chin, throat, and breast, pale yellowish white, each 

 feather tipped with black, the throat only faintly so; on the 

 upper part the spots are triangular, on the middle and sides 

 oblong and transverse, and lower down smaller; back, greyish 

 olive brown, lighter on the lower part. 



The wings, of eighteen quills, which extend to half the 

 length of the tail, and expand to the width of one foot seven 

 inches and a half, have the first very small, the second about 

 equal to the fifth, the third and fourth the longest, and 

 equal to each other in length; underneath, the wings are 

 grey; greater and lesser wing coverts, deep greyish brown, 

 edged with a lighter shade; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, 

 deep brown, narrowly margined with greyish yellow on the 

 outer webs; greater and lesser under wing coverts, greyish 

 white, much observable when the bird is on the wing. The 

 tail, which is rather long and slightly rounded, is greyish 

 brown, the feathers slightly margined on the outer edge with 



