54 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 



does not possess the mellow tones and variety of modu- 

 lation of the song thrush or blackbird, yet it is no mean 

 songster, and much more attractive than some authors 

 describe it. I have heard the woods ring again with its 

 music, the height at which it perches while singing (gene- 

 rally on the extreme point of a tall larch) effectually 

 subduing the loudness of its song, which is much greater 

 than that of either of the two I have mentioned. The 

 absence of other songsters during the months when it is 

 most in song makes its music the more welcome. I have 

 heard it frequently about the 19th or 20th of January, 

 sometimes when the day was fine and sunny, at others 

 when it was cold and stormy, as befits its best-known 

 name of the " storm cock." I must confess that to me 

 its song ringing at such times has a very charming effect ; 

 and, instead of its " loud, untuneful voice," as Mr. Knapp 

 calls it, "being like that of an enchanter calling up a 

 gale," it has seemed to me to herald forth with gleesome 

 heart the approach of the more genial days of spring. 

 The reputed favourite food of this thrush, the berries of 

 the mistletoe, is most abundant in the district, growing 

 chiefly on the whitethorn. I have no doubt that the 

 missel thrush assists greatly in the propagation of this 

 curious parasite ; I used to think that the idea of the 

 seeds germinating after passing through its stomach a 

 mistaken one, for I conceived that the action of the 

 gizzard and stomach would effectually destroy all their 

 vitality, but in this I must confess myself mistaken. Its 

 agency as a disseminator of the plant is exercised also in 

 another way. The berries are exceedingly viscid, and 

 the seeds frequently cling tenaciously to the bill of the 

 bird, who, to rid itself of them, is compelled to rub its 

 bill on the bough of a tree, and thus the seeds are un- 



