MISSEL THRUSH. 325 



plaited into the basket-work, the outer being- left so as to hang down 

 after the manner of the thatch on a haystack, or rather the fern leaves 

 used by gardeners to protect early wall fruit. I have specimens, how- 

 ever, of several of these nests, which have not a particle of moss or 

 lichen about them, but are basketted with roots, hay, and pieces of wood 

 shavings from the carpenter's shop, the lining being of dried grass, neatly 

 fixed into the contour of the nest. 1 * 



The eggs are four or five, and very rarely six in number, of a flesh- 

 colour, marked with deep and light rust-coloured spots ; their weight 

 something more than two drams ; the song is much louder, and very 

 superior to that 'of the thrush ; frequently perching upon the upper- 

 most branch of a tall tree, it sings while the female is making her nest, 

 and during incubation, but becomes silent as soon as the young are 

 hatched, and is no more heard till the following year. If the young 

 are taken, it continues as before, and if the female is destroyed, it con- 

 tinues in song during the whole summer. This experiment we have 

 tried upon this and several other song birds, and always found it in- 

 variable. 



* Mr. Knapp seems to entertain a very different opinion of the vocal 

 powers of this bird. " The approach of a sleety snow storm, following 

 a deceitful gleam in spring," says he, " is always announced to us by 

 the loud untuneful voice of the Missel Thrush, as it takes its stand on 

 some tall tree, like an enchanter calling up the gale. It seems to have 

 no song, no voice, but this harsh predictive note, and that in great 

 measure ceases with the storms of spring." This has called forth 

 remarks from several anonymous writers in the Magazine of Natural 

 History, one of whom asserts that this harsh note is only uttered when 

 alarmed, or when it pursues the redwing, fieldfare, and blackbird, whom 

 it attacks, he says, without mercy. * 



The Missel Thrush is a very bold bird during the breeding season, 

 drives all others from the neighbourhood of its nest, and will even attack 

 the magpie and jay. Its food, like the other species, is insects and ber- 

 ries, particularly that of the misseltoe, which it has been erroneously 

 supposed necessary to pass through the body of this bird, to make it 

 vegetate. That the seed of the berry will propagate after passing the 

 organs of digestion, is no more wonderful than that corn should grow 

 when voided whole by a horse. But such a preparation is no more ne- 

 cessary in the one than in the other, but may be considered as one 

 of the methods nature takes to disperse the seeds of various plants. 



Architecture of Birds. Chap, on Basket-making Birds, p. 211. 



