22 OUR ^•ATnT songsters. 



are often left in a lit state for gennination on the 

 fruit-trees, where this handsome parasite soon 

 grows with a goodly bougli. Nor is the plant 

 confined to fmit-trees, for it may be seen also on 

 the thorn, maple, poplar, hazel, lime, or ash, and 

 sometimes, though very rarely, on the oak. It 

 is very ornamental with its pale green leaves and 

 pearly berries to our woods in winter, but in 

 many parts of the continent, as in France, it is 

 much larger, and indeed almost covers the trees 

 on Avhich it springs. The berries constitute a g0(Kl 

 portion of the food of our bird ; but the missel- 

 thrush eats also those of the iv}', holly, or yew, 

 besides various insects, worms, slugs, and snails. 

 It is not a great depredator of our gardens, 

 though it sometimes eats a few chen*ies and rasp- 

 berries; and the fruits of the mountin'n ash are 

 invariable borne away, if these songsters -^r? to be 

 found in their neighbomdiood. f 



Mudie remarks that tliere is in our familiar 

 appellation, a sort of doul)le naming in the plants 

 and the birds. Thus the latter is called mis.^el- 

 thrush, because it missels (soils) it toes with tlic- 

 slime of the beny ; while the name of the misseltoc 

 refers to its soiling the toes of the bird. 



