THE MISSEL THRUSH. 123 



leaves. On the 6th of April, 1833, a nest with four eggs was 

 observed in an elder in the glen at Wolf-hill ; where, however, 

 two other nests, built on larch firs, were remarked, on the 

 26th of May in the same year, with the birds at that late 

 period incubating ; probably in consequence of the first eggs or 

 brood having been destroyed. It is also noted as building on 

 April the 5th, 1837. On the 7th of April, 1844, a nest, in a 

 young ash tree in Colin Glen, examined by a juvenile friend, 

 contained three eggs; on our proceeding thence from Belfast, 

 pairs of missel thrushes were seen in two or three other localities 

 attacking magpies, and driving them from the vicinity of their 

 nests. Although the spring of 1845 was remarkably late, a pair 

 of these thrushes was observed by an ornithological friend build- 

 ing on the 3rd of April, and, as usual, in an exposed place — the 

 cleft of a birch tree, within a few feet of an avenue at Cromac, 

 being the site; — on the 16th, incubation was going forward. 

 The preceding are casual observations made in the neighbourhood 

 of Belfast. 



In the county of Wexford, they have been known to pair as 

 early as the 29th of December ; to have the nest completed on the 

 4th of March, and the eggs laid on the 22nd of that month.* 

 The missel thrush sometimes builds in towns. When in Dublin 

 in the year 1838, I was assured that pairs had bred for the few 

 preceding years in the garden of Trinity College, and in the grounds 

 attached to the house of the Royal Society: — in the trees at Don- 

 egal Square, Belfast, too, it probably builds, as towards the end of 

 March, and early in April, its song is poured forth in the early 

 morning from the tops of the loftiest trees. The nest is gene- 

 rally most conspicuous: almost every one that I have seen was 

 placed in the forking of the main stem, or chief branches of trees, 

 whether these were wholly bare, or clothed with cryptogamic vege- 

 tation ; but they are sometimes situated eight or ten feet from 

 the main stem, particularly on the branches of firs. Trees in 

 young plantations, rising from twenty to thirty feet in height, 

 are often selected. May it not be in some degree to counter- 



* Poole. 



