The missel-thrush is, while breeding, fierce and 

 pugnacious, driving such birds as approach its nest 

 with great fury to a distance. The Welsh call it 

 *' pen y llwynn," the head or master of the coppice. 

 He suffers no magpie, jay, or blackbird to enter the 



Magpies and their nest. 



garden where he haunts ; and is, for the time, a good 

 guard to the new-sown legumens. In general he is 

 very successful in the defence of his family ; but once 



43 



