A NEIGHBOURLY GOSSIP. 



our fields the whole winter through ; but 

 they are timid and wary, and fly off in a 

 body at .the faintest suspicion of coming 

 danger. You can tell them as they rise on 

 the wing by the conspicuous white patch 

 under the pinions, which seems, like the 

 rabbit's tail, to act as a danger-signal to the 

 rest of the household. No sooner does one 

 of them scent a stranger afar off than he 

 rises silently, and the others, alarmed by his 

 contagious fear, rise after him one by one 

 in a picturesque line, somewhat as one often 

 sees in the case of wild-fowl. In February 

 and March your missel-thrush begins to 

 build in the hawthorns and apple-trees ; and 

 the moment his nestlings are strong enough 

 of wing to buffet the strong winds of the 

 German Ocean, the whole family flits north 

 again to its Norwegian estate for the cloud- 

 berry season. The nests, however, though 

 built somewhat overtly on bare and leafless 

 boughs, are most difficult to find ; for the 

 cunning little architects, knowing well they 



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