4 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of my theory is absolutely proven, though it satisfies my own 

 convictions. 



With the advance of summer, and after the young are fledged, 

 the Mistle-Thrush's utterance is chiefly limited to a harsh mono- 

 syllabic note sounding like wark, repeated at intervals. People 

 have often asked me what it was, and not always believed me 

 when I have told them. Some have fancied it to be the croak of 

 a Frog. 



Without undue presumption, I think I may claim to have 

 found a Mistle-Thrush's nest so charmingly situated as to have 

 been simply peerless in the natural beauty of its immediate 

 surroundings. A huge bunch of mistletoe hung for many years 

 from one of the middle branches of a lofty poplar at the four 

 cross-roads between Lucton School and Mortimer's Cross, in 

 Herefordshire, and in the centre of this bunch a pair of Mistle- 

 Thrushes one spring built their nest and reared their young. 

 Subsequently an enterprising boy climbed the tree just previously 

 to the Christmas holidays, and possessed himself of the mistletoe 

 in its entirety, which doubtless he put to much less profitable use 

 when it adorned the interior of his own home than had been the 

 case with the striking-looking birds that had once employed it 

 as a nesting site during the month of sunshine and showers. 



There is a prevailing notion that Mistle-Thrushes are silent 

 after April has run its course. This may be true of the majority, 

 but one of the species most certainly sang to me almost daily 

 during the first three weeks of May in 1894. There are, I may 

 perhaps observe, many hard-and-fast notions about the history 

 and economy of birds which are wholly erroneous, but which are 

 possibly to be condoned from the fact that they are so often 

 repeated, and therefore fostered, by so-called popular writers on 

 Natural History. Original observations are what we want nowa- 

 days ; how seldom, comparatively speaking, do we get them 

 where birds are concerned ! 



The Song- Thrush (Turdus musicus). 

 Of so generally abundant and well-known a species through- 

 out the British Islands I have not very much to say that has 

 not been said scores of times already, and therefore my remarks 

 on this delightful songster will be discreetly and advantageously 



