270 INSECTIVOILE. 



through and under the bushes and low branches with great 

 celerity. They have also considerable command of them- 

 selves, both on the perch and the ground, in the last of 

 which situations they find a considerable portion of their 

 food. They are not so exclusively insectivorous as some 

 others of the order, but they are chiefly so during the 

 summer; and in the winter, when the state of the weather 

 excludes them from their animal supplies, they have recourse 

 chiefly to wild berries. Snails, slugs, and worms form a 

 principal part of their food, and in the capture of these they 

 do very valuable service to the gardens, orchards, and shrub- 

 beries, and even to many of the field crops. The three 

 resident British ones are all inhabitants of the groves and 

 thickets of the low grounds, or just on the borders of the 

 wilds, and they generally remain in the neighbourhood of 

 their nesting places all the year round. 



THE MISSEL-THRUSH (TurduS 



There is a sort of double naming in this bird; it is called 

 the niissel-thrush because it " missels" (soils) its toes with the 

 viscid slimy juice of the mistletoe berries, of which it is very 

 fond in the winter; and the mistletoe gets its name because 

 it " soils" the toes of the bird. The missel-thrush is the 

 largest of the British species, being nearly a foot long, about 

 eighteen inches in the stretch of the wings, -end five ounces 

 in weight. It is not a very gay bird in its plumage, neither 

 is it remarkable for the briskness of its expression ; but still 

 it is a beautiful bird, light in its form and soft in the tints of 

 its plumage. Its ground colour above is grey with a trace of 

 buff, and that below whitish with a lighter trace of the same. 

 Quills and greater coverts greyish brown, relieved at the 

 margins with pale ash-colour and white, and occasionally a 

 trace of buff. Tail deep ash-grey, the tips of the outer tail 

 feathers and their inner webs white. The throat, cheeks, and 



