THRUSHES. 
47 r 
the South African thrush; this last uttering a peculiar half song, half call, as if it 
were troubled with a cold. 
Missel Thrush The missel-thrush (Turdus viscivorus) is found in nearly every 
part of Europe at the one or other season of the year, breeding in the 
northern regions, and wintering partially in the southern parts. It breeds in the 
Himalaya, at a height of ten thousand feet, descending to the valleys in winter, 
when it is found in Southern Persia, and in Africa north of the Sahara. The 
missel-thrushes of Central Asia and the Himalaya, where they attain their palest 
colour and largest dimensions, were formerly assigned to a different species, T. 
hodgsoni , but this separation is no longer accepted, as according to Mr. Seebohm 
some of the specimens from Asia Minor are clearly intermediate between the 
eastern and western birds. 
The missel-thrush is the largest of the British thrushes and the earliest song¬ 
bird of the year. “ Frequently perching upon the uppermost branch of a tall tree,” 
says Montagu, “ it sings when 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 
beginning of the new year. If the young are taken its song continues as before, 
and if the female is destroyed it continues in song the whole summer. This 
experiment we have tried upon this and several other song-birds, and always 
found it invariable.” 
It is greyer on the wing than the other thrushes and has a heavier and more 
jerky flight with pauses at regular intervals and no undulations, and its axillaries 
are always very conspicuous when it starts off. Unlike the fieldfare, which also 
has white axillaries, its legs are of a pale brown. In the young the upper wing- 
coverts are broadly tipped with white, and the flanks and under-parts are suffused 
with golden buff. In this plumage it has occasionally been mistaken for White’s 
thrush, which belongs to a different genus, and is easily distinguishable by its 
chequered black and white axillaries and by its tail having fourteen feathers. 
The missel-thrush breeds early, often building its nest in February and the 
early part of March before the leaves are on the trees. The trees it chooses for its 
nest are generally those coated with white moss, apple trees being preferred. It 
never, or hardly ever, builds in a bush. Gilbert White says he has seen the nest of 
the missel-thrush as large as an ordinary hat and very scientifically made; and a 
nest has been recorded which was in an old hat that had probably been flung into 
the tree. At first,” says the finder, t: it hardly looked like a nest, but there were 
a few bits of grass over the brim that had a very suspicious aspect, and on 
climbino’ the tree the old hat was found to have been made the basis of a warm 
o 
nest with the proper complement of eggs.” The missel-thrush has enormously 
increased its breeding-range in the British Isles during the present century; and 
in the autumn and winter months is shy and retiring, hunting the open fields in 
flocks, which exercise extreme vigilance over their common safety. Although this 
bird feeds principally upon worms and berries in the winter, its common name is 
derived from its passionate fondness for the berries of the mistletoe, which are 
rejected by the majority of small birds, even when pressed by hunger. The missel- 
thrush pairs early in the season, and the nest is generally placed in some conspicuous 
position. In districts where magpies are numerous it often builds its nest in a bush. 
