TURDUS VISCIVORUS, Linn. MISSEL THRUSH. 
Woop TurusH, Scotch THrusH, Norway Turusn, WIN (ze. 
Winp) TurusH, Forricn THRUSH, SHELL Cock (Castle- 
town district),1 
THE Missel Thrush is a common Manx resident. It 
appears to have been unknown in Ireland, and scarce in 
Cumberland and elsewhere in northern England, until 
about the beginning of the nineteenth century; and rare 
in Galloway until within the last fifty years; and it is 
therefore a not unnatural presumption, though unsupported 
by direct evidence, that its settlement here is also recent, 
The meanings of some of the above-given names, and the 
seeming absence of a genuine Gaelic name, point in the 
same direction, Before that time Man was almost devoid 
of timber, but the presence of the bird is not absolutely 
dependent on the country being wooded. 
The Missel Thrush is found in all parts of the island, and 
is a conspicuous and dominant bird, especially in the upland 
country where the moors border on the cultivated land, 
and where it finds a favourite nesting place in some small 
larch. or deciduous tree of the little hillside plantations 
which are scattered over such a district. There in the spring 
its green mossy nest, sometimes with an untidy piece of wool 
hanging from it, is often conspicuous in a fork amid the 
leafless branches. But it feeds and nests also in the shrub- 
beries and gardens about the outskirts of the towns and 
villages. I have seen its nest among the sticks of an old 
1 The names of this species, the Fieldfare, and likely the Redwing, are 
popularly confused, 
oN a 
