80 
MERULID7E. 
I had always believed that the Missel Thrush deserved 
the character which it has obtained of quarrelsomeness 
and pugnacity, until I have become better acquainted 
with its history. Wherever its nest is there its harsh 
querulous cries may be often heard. During the breed¬ 
ing season it is the most persecuted bird that lives. It is 
kept in perpetual turmoil, and, well for it, it is possessed 
with courage. Its eggs are constantly sucked by the 
jackdaw and the corby crow, and if it should succeed in 
defending them by its intrepidity till they are hatched, 
its young are the epicure’s bit of the same crow and 
jackdaw, and even tempt the rook to become raptorial. 
When I saw the Missel Thrushes making their nests 
here, as they do every year, high up, forty or fifty feet 
above the ground, and midway upon the horizontal 
branches of some lofty cedar-trees, I thought how securely 
they were placed, and so they were from terrestrial foes; 
but, called out as a witness to the murder by the pitiless 
cries of the poor persecuted thrushes, I have had the 
mortification of seeing their young ones carried off year 
after year with a loud croak of satisfaction by their demon 
foe the corby crow. Out of a dozen nests which I have 
noticed upon these trees, the young from two only have 
escaped. 
Mr. Bond says that he has known the Missel Thrush 
to again lay its eggs in the same nest in which it had suc¬ 
cessfully reared a brood of young ones. 
