REDWING. 199 



whitish tinged on the breast and flanks with fulvous to rufous, 

 and spotted with blackish brown on the breast. The axillaries, 

 noticeable in flight, are bright golden buff. The bill is dark 

 brown, the legs pale brown, and the irides hazel. During 

 winter the tips of the feathers are abraded and the spring 

 plumage is greyer and the spots smaller than after the moult in 

 autumn. The sexes are alike. The young are mottled with buff 

 on the upper parts. Length, 8-5 ins. Wing, 4*5 ins. Tarsus, 

 1*2 ins. 



Redwing. Turdus iliacus Linn. 



The Redwing (Plate 83) breeds in the northern Palccarctic 

 regions and winters in southern Europe, India and Persia. To 

 our islands it is a regular winter visitor, and many travel 

 tlirough towards southern Europe or north Africa ; it reaches 

 Britain in September and October, sometimes in very large 

 numbers, and returns northward in March and April, a few at 

 times lingering until May. 



During its stay in Britain the Redwing is distinctly gregarious, 

 frequenting open country, feeding in the fields with Fieldfares 

 and other birds. In these mixed flocks there are often a few 

 Song-Thrushes, from which it can be distinguished by its long 

 pale eye-stripe and reddish flanks ; when it flies the rich chest- 

 nut on the axillaries shows, much deeper than the golden-bufl" 

 of the Song-Thrush. The food of the Redwing is mainly worms, 

 insects, molluscs and other small animals, and when the supply 

 of these is cut off by hard frost or a heavy fall of snow the bird 

 suffers ; it will then take to berries, eating those of the white- 

 thorn, yew, ivy and holly, but if these have been already stripped 

 by the Blackbirds and Mistle-Thrushes it is forced to leave or 

 perishes. Although westward movements towards Ireland are 

 frequent before and during heavy snowfalls, large numbers 

 linger until they are too weak to travel, and a hard winter is 



