5*24 CLASS AVES. 



Tlie cliochi composes its nest of small and very flexible 

 branches, furnished with slips of roots, and covered with an 

 extremely thick coating of cow-dung, mixed with sand. 



The Missel ( Turdus Viscivorus^ is the largest of all the 

 European thrushes. It is like many other birds that people 

 our woods and orchards, partly migratory, and partly seden- 

 tary. In Lorraine, according to Dr. Lottinger, the missels 

 quit the mountains at the approach of winter, always fly in 

 flocks in spring and autumn, return in March, and nestle in 

 the forests with which these mountains are covered. In Brie, 

 according to Hebert, the correspondent of BufFon, they do not 

 unite in flocks at any season of the year. If those two ob- 

 servers speak of the same species of thrush, it would appear 

 that its habits are not the same in all countries. The greater 

 number of the missels quit our northern climates on the ap- 

 proach of winter, but some remain. Those certainly do not 

 jive in flocks like the fieldfares, but in families. They pair in 

 the month of January, and once coupled, each pair lives sepa- 

 rately. 



The missel is one of the first of our sedentary birds which 

 announce the return of spring ; for even so early as the fine 

 days of February the male perches on the top of a very lofty 

 tree, and puts forth a varied song, which, though remarkably 

 loud, is not destitute of harmony. The female makes her nest 

 even previously to the setting in of spring, and places it on 

 large trees, but more generally on those of a middling height. 

 She constructs it in the bifurcations of the principal branches, 

 employs moss, leaves, and large weeds outside, cemented with 

 earth, and carpets the nest with fine plants within, horsehair, and 

 wool, and covers the exterior very artfully with, moss like that 

 Avhich grows on the tree itself. She seldom lays more than 

 four eggs, of obscure white, spotted with brown, and the male 

 partakes the incubation. They feed the young ones with 

 caterpillars, small worms, slugs, and snails, whose shells they 

 break. A second brood is generally hatched after the first, 



