>IK. J, H. GUItNKY, JUN'., ON THK TliaUSH TRIHE IN ENGLAND. G 19 
VIII. 
« 
THE THRUSH TRIBE IX ENGLAND. 
Bv . 1 . H. Gurney, Jun., E.Z.S., Prmtleyit. 
Read 2gth January, 1889. 
The Thru.sh tribe are placed by modern systematists at tlie bead 
of our list of British Birds, and it would be difficult to find fault 
with an arran^'ement which commences with a genus so typical. 
They belong to the fivmily Turdido-, of the order Puwere», and 
suli order Oerinex. 
Mlstletoe Thrush, Turdm vUrivonix, Linn. 
The Mistletoe Thrusli is found all the year in England, and is 
much commoner than it lused to be, according to the testimony of 
everybody, and what everybody .says must lie right ! It has become 
commoner in Norfolk. I remember one very exceptional year 
when there were more Mistletoe Thrushes’ nests about Cromer 
than Blackbirds’, a state of things which would have astonishe<l 
the immortid Bewick ! 
In Norfolk this bird is commonly called a Fidfer, literally 
meaning a/arer over Jitddx ov faUotcx; and sometimes an unusually 
discerning rustic will call a Mistletoe Thrush a Duic-ftdrer, meaning 
that in its large si/.e and light colour it resembles a Ring Dove. 
The true Fieldfare is also a Ftdfer, and I have many a time heard 
the name ajiplied to the Redwing too, for our country-folk are not 
very discriminating in their Natural Hi.story; but the name belongs 
by right to the Fieldfare, and is misapplied to any other species. 
In regard to the food of this bird, Professor Newton, to who.se 
help I am greatly indebted, assures me that in the garden of 
^Magdalene College, Cambridge, where there are many apple-trees, 
until lately thicklj' overgrown with mistletoe, he has for more 
than five-and-twenty years observed the zest with which the 
mistletoe-berries are eaten by ^Mistletoe Thrushes, and moreover 
that these berries seem not to be ordinarily touched by any other 
bird. Professor Newton tells me that on one occasion he saw 
a mistletoe-berry taken by a Redbreast; but on the other liand 
he has seen a Blackhiiil, apparently in the last extremity of 
famine, sit with a mistletoe-berry not half-a-dozen inches from 
VOL. IV. s s 
