ORDER PASSERKS. 525 



and when both are ended the families unite, and add to the 

 aliments just mentioned various kinds of berries, cherries, 

 grapes, and other fruits. In winter they feed on flax-seed, hops, 

 ivyberries, buckthorn, and particularly misletoe ; from which 

 our name of missel-thrush is given to them. In Burgundy 

 they are called Draines, from a peculiar cry which they con- 

 tinually repeat, either as a rallying or a warning signal, and 

 which has some fancied resemblance to this word. Montbeillard 

 tells us that the missel-thrushes are very pacific in their man- 

 ners ; but Le Vaillant, with more appearance of truth, declares 

 that his observation is without foundation. They are, in fact, 

 of a quarrelsome nature, and often fight either for food or the 

 choice of a companion. The males are more numerous than the 

 females, and it is not rare to see two or three of them disputing 

 so bitterly, that they forget their natural distrust, and suffer 

 themselves to be approached very closely. The combat does 

 not cease until the most feeble have abandoned both the object 

 of their quarrel, and the district which she inhabits. Those 

 which establish themselves in orchards prove very vigilant 

 sentinels for our poultry, which they always warn of the ap- 

 proach of birds of prey. They seek to take under their pro- 

 tection all the little birds which nestle in the same quarter with 

 themselves. If a kestril, a hawk, a crow, or a jay should 

 appear in the neighbourhood, the male directly announces its 

 presence by a cry of uneasiness ; the female joins him, and on 

 their united cries, repeated with every tone and accent of 

 anger, an entire cohort of little birds, especially finches, join 

 with them in pursuit of the common enemy, and succeed in 

 terrifying him, and obliging him to take to flight before his 

 feeble adversaries. 



The missels are very distrustful, much more so than the 

 blackbirds. It is vei-y difficult to surprise them, except at 

 hatching time ; then they can be approached more easily : they 

 are so much absorbed in the care of incubation, that they will 

 allow themselves sometimes to be taken on the nest. They 



