to rob its belongings. The old birds exhibit much devotion to their young, and 
will permit of a very close approach whilst feeding them. When the young are 
fledged, they gather into family parties, which scour the country in search of new 
feeding-grounds. The song of the storm-cock, as it is frequently called, can be 
heard to the best advantage on a stormy day in springtime, when the bird sends 
forth his loud sonorous notes, as though in defiance of the elements. A migratory 
species, and often snared on its autumn journey through Central Europe, the 
missel-thrush is not so subject to abnormal variations of plumage as is the song- 
47 2 PERCHING BIRDS. 
or low tree close to a cottage, as though recognising a certain protection in the 
neighbourhood of man. The nest is built of stems of dry grass, moss, and vegetable 
fibres, often trimmed externally with grey lichens; the eggs being greyish green 
in ground-colour, spotted with chocolate. During the breeding-season the missel- 
thrush exercises a watchful surveillance over the orchard or garden in which its 
nest is built, boldly mobbing jackdaws and even larger intruders, if they attempt 
SONG-THRUSH AND RING-OUZEL (J nat. size). 
