THE STORMCOCK. 
255 
close to the masons. The male bird instantly came 
up, and rescued his mate, by fighting the magpie, 
until he made it let go its hold. " Causa viae conjux." 
It was to save his female that he advanced so un- 
dauntedly into the midst of his mortal enemies : 
nothing else could have induced him to face the 
danger. I fancy that I hear him say — 
Si fata negant veniam pro conjuge, certum est, 
Nolle redire mihi : letho gaudete duorum. " 
" If you won't give my poor dear up to me, here I 
stay ; yoU may kill us both." This loving couple 
retired triumphant to their nest; but the female lost 
half of her tail in the fray. 
The stormcock surpasses all other thrushes in 
size, and is decidedly the largest songster of the 
European birds. He remains with us the whole of 
the year ; and he is one of three birds which charm 
us with their melody during the dreary months of 
winter, when the throstle and the lark are silent, 
and all the migratory birds have left us, to sojourn 
in warmer climates. On this account I prize him 
doubly. He appears to be gregarious in the months 
of August and September. I have occasionally 
counted from forty to fifty of these birds in a fiock ; 
and I suspect that they are sometimes mistaken for 
an early arrival of fieldfares, by those who pay atten- 
tion to the migration of birds. 
The stormcock is remarkably fond of the berries 
of the mountain-ash. He who loves to see this 
pretty songster near his dwelling would do well to 
plant a number of mountain-ashes in the midst of 
