2 5 8 TORDIDiE.
PASSERES. TTJRDIDyf,.
T u r d u s v is c iv o r u s , Linnaeus*.
TH E M IS T L E T O E -T H K U S H .
Tardus viscivorus.
T h e M i s t l e t o e - T h r u s h is one of the largest species of
the genus, and, though not so numerous anywhere as the
Song-Thrush and Blackbird, is yet nowadays very generally
diffused, as the evidence to be hereafter quoted will shew.
I t is rather a shy bird, frequenting small woods, and the
high trees in hedges hounding large meadows; hut during
the breeding-season it becomes bold and quarrelsome, driving
away larger birds from its haunts, so that in "W ales,
according to Pennant, it has acquired the name of Pen. y
llwyn, or master of the coppice. Though as a species
* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 291 (1766).
W *
MISTLETO E-T IT RU SII.
resident in this country all the year, many certainly migrate
for the winter. Of those which remain the males begin
to sing very early in the season, often in January, and if
the weather be mild, sometimes in December. The strain,
which is something like that of the Blackbird, but not so
good in quality of tone, is repeated many times in succession,
and generally from the top of some lofty tre e ; but is
said to be occasionally uttered on the wing; and, from the
song being frequently given almost regardless of wind, rain
and even snow, the name of Storm-cock is a well-known
appellation of the Mistletoe-Thrush. I t is also called the
Holm-Tlirusli, doubtless from its feeding greedily on the
berries of the Holm, as the Holly was formerly often called.*
The Mistletoe-Thrush is an early breeder, beginning to
build in March, and fixing its nest in or on the fork of a
branch of a tree, especially of an oak, beech or elm, covered
with lichens. The nest is composed outwardly of lichen,
moss, dry grass and coarse stems of other plants, coated
inwardly with a layer of mud, which again is covered with a
lining of fine grasses, but the bird will make use of various
odd materials—bits of rag, paper and matting or shavings.
The nest is sometimes artfully concealed by the lichens
which deck its exterior, assimilating it to those which grow
on the branch which bears i t ; but, as a rule, it is generally
placed in conspicuous and exposed situations, so as to be
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* Thus, among much other evidence that might be cited, Chaucer, in
the ‘ Parlement of Foules’ has (st. 26) “ The boxtre pipere, holm to whippis
lasch,” where, according to Mr. Furnivall, five of the texts read “ holm ’ or
“ holme,” three “ holin ” or “ holyn,” and one “ holye.” In the ‘ Promptorium
Parvulorum’ written about 1440, and edited for the Camden Society by Mr. Way,
“ Holme” and “ Holy” are given as synonymous (p. 244). Spenser also, in his
‘Virgil’s Gnat,’ has (st. 27) “ the black Holme,” an epithet pointing to a tree
with dark foliage. On the introduction into this country, about 1581, of the
evergreen oak (Quercus ilex) the name Holm-oak was applied to it as the oak
resembling the holly (Loudon, Arboretum, iii. p. 1902) ; and in like manner
Holm-berries as a name for those of the Butcher s broom (Ruscus (iculecitus) is
probably of the same origin, the dark, shining and sharp-pointed leaves of the
two plants (to say nothing of their red berries) suggesting the likeness. The
Editor is indebted to his two learned friends, Mr. W. W. Skeatand Mr. J. Rawson
Lumby, for much of the information just given.