40 BRITISH BIRDS 



He is the hardiest of our vocalists, and is better known as a winter 

 than a summer songster. His song may be heard in the autumn, 

 but from midwinter until spring his music is most noteworthy. 

 Its loudness and wild character give it a wonderful impressiveness 

 at that season of the year. He is not of the winter singers that 

 wait for a gleam of spring-like sunshine to inspirit them, but is 

 loudest in wet and rough weather ; and it is this habit and some- 

 thing in the wild and defiant character of the song, heard above the 

 tumult of nature, which have won for him the proud name of storm- 

 cock. 



This thrush is an early breeder, and pairs about the beginning 

 of February. The birds, after mating, are exceedingly pugnacious, 

 and attack all others, large or small, that approach the chosen 

 nesting-site. The nest is not often made in evergreens, to which 

 blackbirds and song-thrushes are so partial ; as a rule, a deciduous 

 tree oak, elm, or beech is made choice of, and the nest may be 

 at any height, from a few feet above the ground to the highest 

 part of a tall tree ; and as it is built so early in the year, when 

 trees are leafless, it forms a most conspicuous object. Furthermore, 

 the missel-thrush, a shy and wary bird at other times, becomes 

 strangely trustful, and even careless, when nesting, and often 

 builds in the neighbourhood of a house, or in an isolated tree 

 at the roadside. When building and breeding the birds are silent, 

 except when the nest is threatened with an attack, when they 

 become clamorous and bold beyond most species in defence of their 

 eggs or nestlings. 



The nest is large and well made, outwardly of dry grass, 

 moss, and other materials, woven together ; it is plastered with 

 mud inside, and thickly lined with fine dry grass. The four eggs 

 vary in ground-colour from bluish white to pale reddish brown, and 

 are spotted, blotched, and clouded, with various shades of purple, 

 brown, and greyish under-markings. Two or three broods are 

 reared in the season. 



At the end of June the missel-thrushes begin to unite in small 

 parties numbering a dozen to twenty birds, and to range over the 

 open country, seeking their food in the pastures and turnip-fields, 

 and on moors and commons. Where the birds are abundant much 

 larger congregations are seen. In Ireland I have seen them in 

 August in flocks of about a hundred birds. They do not keep close 

 together, as is the manner of starlings and finches, but fly widely 

 scattered, and alight at a distance apart, a flock of fifty to a hundred 



