tour young ones nearly fledged. Having returned in the course of a few hours, I again peeped into it, when 
to my astonishment I found one of them cut in the breast, and almost at the point of death. I could not 
imagine what had been the cause of this sudden catastrophe. The gardener, however, told me that, whilst 
he was watehing his bees, he heard the male and female Thrushes uttering the most doleful screams. He 
ran immediately to the spot, in the expectation of seeing a cat or a weasel, but beheld a Missel-Thrush in the 
very act of killing one of their brood. So determined was it in carrying into effect its daring attempt at 
murder that he got within a few yards of it before it observed him.” 
In external appearance the two sexes of the Missel-Thrush are so much alike that it is quite impossible 
to say «hich is one and which the other; dissection must therefore be resorted to, to determine the 
question satisfactorily. Freshly moulted birds are exceedingly rich in colour, particularly in the wash of 
buff which intersects the spotting of the under surface ; after a time, however, this delicate hue fades away 
until the parts it pervaded become nearly white. The young, just after leaving the nest, are even more 
beautiful than the adults, each feather of the upper surface being ornamented in the centre with a tear-drop- 
like marking of deep buff, terminating in a crescent of brown, the remainder of the feather being grey, and 
the secondaries and tail-feathers conspicuously margined with reddish buff. These feathers, however, are 
soon cast off, and new' ones assumed, and before December arrives the adults and their offspring closely 
assimilate in appearance. In the youthful state of plumage above described, the Missel-Thrush has been 
mistaken by many persons for M^hite’s Thrush — a very different bird, both in structure and markings. 
Many papers have been written, and much discussion has ensued, respecting the structure of the nest, some 
authors stating that it has an interlining of mud between the materials forming the exterior and Interior ; 
while others deny its existence : perhaps both are right ; for the bird is, doubtless, greatly influenced by the 
nature of the materials at hand. Mr. Joseph H. Ellis, of Leicester, in a communication to ‘The Field ’ of 
May 30th, 1863, says, “ I have sent three nests to your office, which you will find have mud in the foun- 
dation. As far as my observation goes, they always use mud when the nest is laid on a thick bough, or 
placed in a large fork of a tree. It seems to be used to plaster the first part of the nest to the branches, to 
hold the loose materials together. I have seen nests among thin branches where no mud was used.” 
“ These nests,” remarks the editor of ‘The Field,’ “ are very interesting, and corroborate in all respects our 
correspondent’s description. There is no clay actually used in the construction of either, but, as Mr. Ellis 
observes, to plaster or attach the first part of the nest to the branch ; in fact, the mud serves rather the 
purpose of glue than that of a building-material.” 
The nest is a large, round, cup-shaped structure, outwardly composed of mosses, twigs, wmol, grass, or 
any other material at hand, whether it be the shavings blown away from the joiner’s shop, or the lace from 
a lady’s cap ; internally the neat warm lining is composed of fine grasses. The eggs, which are four or 
five in number, differ so mueh from those of the other members of the genus that they cannot be mistaken 
for either of them : their ground-colour is a stone-white, mottled and spotted with chestnut and various 
shades of browm ; in size they assimilate both to those of the Blackbird and those of the Ring-Ousel. 
The Missel-Thrush is so pugnacious during the breeding-season that it does not hesitate to attack Magpies, 
Crows, and even the smaller Hawks. The late Mr. Thompson mentions tliat he saw one strike a Kestril 
several times, and make as many more attempts to do so ; but the Hawk, by suddenly rising, escaped the 
coming blows. On the other hand, it not unfrequently happens that small birds evince their dislike of the 
Missel-Thrush by mobbing and following it as they do the Cuckoo and the Sparrow-Hawk. 
During the very severe montli of January 1867, when all England was under snow and frost, birds gene- 
rally retired to the more western and, usually, milder climate of Cornwall ; but even there the vast assem- 
blages found a country equally inhospitable. Enfeebled by cold and w'ant of food, the smaller birds could 
not continue their journey southwards, but perished by thousands. The Rooks, Starlings, Blaekbirds, 
Thrushes, Fieldfares, and Redwings suffered severely ; but no species succumbed to the rigours of the 
season so completely as the Missel-Thrushes ; they were destroyed to a bird. During my daily walks 
through the woods and shrubberies of the Tregothnan domain I frequently observed their dead bodies 
lying around, half-picked and eaten by other birds ; and I do not I’emember a more distressing loss of bird- 
life than those few days occasioned ; but as this has been alluded to in another part of this work, I need say 
no more on the subject here. 
The Plate represents an adult and two young birds just after leaving the nest, on a branch of the spruce- 
fir in flower. 
