180 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE FIELDFARE. 

 (Turd us pilaris.) 



Plate 50, Fig. 7, 9. 



Fieldfares have been said to breed in the British Islands, but, 

 until definite proofs are forthcoming, it is not safe to admit the 

 truth of the statement, the birds being very liable to be con- 

 founded with Mistle Thrushes by careless observers. The Field- 

 fare has a somewhat more southerly breeding range than the 

 Redwing. It breeds in the Arctic circle, extending up to, and 

 occasionally beyond, the limit of forest growth, and in north- 

 temperate Europe as far south and west as the basin of the 

 Baltic, and throughout Siberia as far east as the watershed of 

 the Yenisei and the Lena. 



The nest is very similar to the Blackbird's or the Ring Ouzel's 

 in construction and materials. The outside is made of coarse 

 dry grass, with sometimes a few birch-twigs or a little moss 

 interwoven, then plastered with mud, and finally lined with a 

 thick bed of fine grass. 



The eggs are from four to six in number, and, in rare instances, 

 as many as seven or as few as three. None of our British 

 Thrushes' eggs vary so widely as do the eggs of the Fieldfare. 

 The average type of egg is bluish-green in ground-colour, thickly 

 marbled, speckled, and blotched over the entire surface with rich 

 reddish-brown, the spots being the densest on the larger end, in 

 fact resembling a very handsome Blackbird's egg. Some varieties 

 are pale greenish, with the spots and streaks distributed equally 

 over the whole surface and very pale and indistinct, like the 

 duller eggs of the Blackbird ; in others the egg is paler in ground- 

 colour, but thickly and boldly blotched with reddish-brown, like 

 typical eggs of the Ring Ouzel ; while yet, again, specimens are 

 more rarely met with, which are almost as blue as the Song 

 Thrushes', and with but one or two streaks of liver-brown on 

 the larger end. They vary in length from 1*35 to 1'02 inch, and 

 in breadth from 0"9 to 0'7 inch. 



The American Migratory Thrush (Turdus migratorius) has 

 occurred once in England and once in Ireland, but in both 

 instances the birds are believed to have escaped from con- 

 finement, 



