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 g-ardeners 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.‘ * 
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. 
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