THE MISSEL-THRUSH. 271 



chin, marked with three-cornered spots of brown, and the 

 rest of the under part with larger patches of the same. The 

 bill black, except the base of the lower mandible, which is 

 pale yellow; the sides of the head brown, but the eye sur- 

 rounded by a white circle. The female is more rusty on the 

 under side; and the young have the top of the head and 

 upper part of the neck greyish white, and the wings and tail 

 more inclining to brown. The colours vary considerably, 

 and some specimens are nearly white. 



The missel-thrush, being found chiefly in those wooded 

 and sheltered places where the winter is neither the longest 

 nor the most severe, and meeting with berries at the times 

 when the snow keeps it from the ground, is much better fed 

 at that season than many of the other birds. In ordinary 

 seasons, indeed, it is never very long without animal food, 

 because it is very persevering and adroit in finding out 

 snails and slugs in their winter retreats ; so that it is among 

 the first birds to feel the turn of the year, and though its 

 note is not so mellifluous and varied as that of the song- 

 thrush, it is still both powerful and musical; and as it is the 

 first that is heard in the woodland after the howling of the 

 wind among the leafless branches, and heard even during the 

 fitful pauses of that, when the February or even the January 

 sun flings a momentary ray of hope upon the doubtful year, 

 it is perhaps hailed with more fondness than the song of the 

 nightingale itself, which is never heard till the season has so 

 far budded and bloomed, as to be full of life and hope without 

 the nightingale. 



Perched upon some leafless tree, and haply near a branch 

 of that misletoe which has been a bone of contention between 

 the bird and the rustics, the one for his Christmas dinner, 

 and the other for his Christmas sport, the missel -thrush 

 shakes the surrounding air with his melody ; and while we 

 listen to the strain, we feel that the promise of nature's 



