20 Minstrels of the Winter. 



shock, now the mistletoe, which used to thrive in these parts, 

 begins to show signs of sickliness, and when we lose that we 

 must say farewell to the missel-thrush, or rather he will take 

 farewell of us, and we shall miss his boisterous song. Hitherto 

 the missel-thrush (Turdus viscivorus) has been a constant and 

 a frequent visitor at Stoke Newington, and all the gardens of 

 the northern suburbs. He is indeed fond of the suburbs of 

 London, and often seen at Brixton, Tulse Hill, Sydenham, and 

 other spots which still retain a show of rurality. But though 

 fond of mistletoe berries, there is no necessary connection 

 between the bird and the druidical plant ; and if we lose the 

 missel-thrush it will not be because the mistletoe has perished, 

 but because the new houses interpose a barrier between us and 

 the open country. Every winter during the past seven years 

 I have not failed to see the missel-thrush in the garden half-a- 

 dozen times at least, and it is some satisfaction to know that a 

 great boss of fruiting ivy, which bears berries most abundantly, 

 is an attraction to this and other winter songsters, and no in- 

 crease of building will destroy that or render it less fruitful. 

 Very few birds are gregarious in winter, two or three black- 

 birds and song-thrushes may. sometimes be seen on the lawn 

 at one time, and occasionally a dozen sparrows will forage in 

 company among the rhododendrons; but. the storm-cock is 

 loneliest of the lonely — an emblem of solitude — for he comes 

 alone, he comes at times when most other birds are cowering 

 for shelter in unseen retreats, and for a thrush of any kind his 

 size is so vast and his aspect so daring, that there is a charm 

 about his solitariness, and his loud, melancholy, monotonous 

 song is as appropriate to his whole character and habits as to the 

 dreamy season when he most rejoices to utter it. It appears 

 not to have been noticed that this bird plays the hawk occa- 

 sionally among the minor minstrels, and is at times as much 

 feared by small birds as the buzzard and the kite. I have seen 

 a missel-thrush make ;i dash into a bed of American shrubs in 

 front of my drawing-room windows, and put to flight a score or 

 more of sparrows with expressions of alarm, as if a bomb-shell 

 had fallen amongst them. Wnite remarks upon its pugnacity 

 during the season of nidification, " driving such birds as ap- 

 proach its aesl with great fury to a distance. The Welsh call 

 if pen y llwyn, the bead or master of the coppice. Ho suffers 

 no magpie, jay, or blackbird to enter the garden where he 

 haunts, and ifl for the time ;i good guard to the new-sown 

 legumens." This last note 1ms strangely escaped the notice of 

 the advocates of birds against the destroyers who make no 

 exception in their wholesale devastation, by trap, poison, and 

 gun. Bui il LS not in (lie breeding season only that the storm- 

 cock is pugnacious; he is al all times a hater of birds, even of 



