THRUSHES 137 



wing, and on migration the two species frequently 

 arrive together. It is the handsomest of the 

 Thrushes, and its loud, clear rattle and bright ash- 

 grev plumes render it at once conspicuous as it 

 moves, often in considerable flocks, about the 

 wintry fields. Differing from other members of the 

 Thrush family it sometimes roosts upon the ground. 

 Although it appears to be one of the hardiest of 

 birds, it is, in common with the Redwing, incapable 

 of enduring long-persistent frost. On the east coast 

 of Yorkshire in the winter of 1906-7, many hun- 

 dreds of Fieldfares and Redwings were seen 

 numbed and helpless in the fields or clustering 

 about the houses, in so weak a condition that they 

 could easily be taken by hand. 



The nest is formed of fibres, coarse bents and 

 moss, with an inner layer of mud and a lining of 

 soft, drv grass. The eggs — four to R\e in number 

 (Saunders states that seven are sometimes laid) — 

 resemble the Blackbird's, but are boldly blotched 

 rather than streaked. 



The Fieldfare breeds in colonies, often choosing 

 the sides of some wooded ravine for a site, and the 

 numerous nests seen at the tops of the comparatively 

 low birches, give the coppice the appearance of a 

 miniature rookery. Although these birds usually 

 build at a fair elevation, this is not always the case. 

 When Ryper shooting in early September, near 

 Nadre Vasenden in Norway, I recently came upon 

 a group of nests from which the young birds had 

 then, of course, flown. In this place, in a hollow in 

 the hills, the ground which surrounded a weedy lake 

 was extremely boggy, and here and there, islands 



