Seeds and Sowers 269 



the elders and rowans are still laden ; and by the 

 time that the softer fruits are over, blackberries, 

 too, are so withered that they tempt them less. 

 Man has thus almost the full use of this wild crop, 

 although he is often so hard pressed by birds for 

 the enjoyment of his garden fruit. Last of all 

 the softer berries come those of the mistletoe, which 

 completes the paradox of its growth by ripening in 

 winter. These, too, are often found stripped when 

 the mistletoe bush is cut for Christmas ; and there 

 is little doubt that the missel, or mistletoe, thrush 

 is their chief assailant. But mistletoe berries are 

 by no means the missel-thrush's main food ; and its 

 name is a proof of the interest which gathered in 

 early times round every association of the bough. 

 The common local name of screech-thrush is much 

 more descriptive of the bird's habits, but it has 

 remained a provincialism. 



Thrushes, blackbirds, and their kindred feed upon 

 berries for the sake of their pulp ; but another 

 large class of birds are attracted by their kernels 

 or hard seeds. While the missel-thrushes are 

 wrangling over the sweet cups of the yew berries 

 in the autumn thickets, great tits and several kinds 

 of finches search persistently for the hard, inner 

 shells among the boughs and on the ground beneath. 

 The repeated hammering of the great tit, as he 

 breaks the kernels of the hawthorn, yew, white- 

 beam, or hornbeam with his bill upon a bough, is 

 one of the commonest sounds in the stillness of the 

 autumn woods. Strong as is the great tit's bill, 

 it is not quite strong enough to break the hardened 



