2 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



7 In the British Isles, where both the Iceland and typical forms occur, 

 the red-winged thrush is a familiar winter visitor of markedly gregari- 

 ous habits, feeding in scattered flocks on open pastures and grasslands 

 or sometimes in stubble and root fields, but perching freely in hedge- 

 rows and trees. In northern Europe and Asia it is one of the charac- 

 teristic birds of the Arctic and sub-Arctic birch forests, though it is 

 also found more sparingly about scrub growth of birch and willow even 

 beyond the tree limit. In Iceland, where woodland is almost absent, 

 the typical haunts of the species are necessarily different from those of 

 the European mainland; it is found in broken, often rock-strewn, 

 country, most commonly where birch scrub exists, but also even in 

 areas almost devoid of scrub. The Iceland race is rather darker above 

 than the typical form, with the underparts more heavily marked and 

 the breast and flanks more washed with olive-brown. The Iceland 

 birds are also generally a trifle larger. Witherby (1938, vol. 2) gives 

 the wing measurements of males as 119-128 mm. (one 117) against 113- 

 119 (one 122) for the typical form; and of females as 120-128 mm. 

 against 113-119 mm. Ticehurst (1925) in a considerable series found 

 that 75 percent of Icelandic birds had the wing 122 mm. or over, this 

 length, as will be seen from the figures just given, being very rare in 

 the typical form. 



Courtship. — Unfortunately, nothing whatever has been recorded 

 about the courtship or display of this species. 



Nesting. — While its relative and frequent associate the fieldfare is 

 gregarious both at its nesting places and in winter, the redwing is 

 gregarious in winter only, nesting in scattered pairs and being evi- 

 dently territorial in its habits, for Hantzsch (1905) states that in 

 Iceland the males are quarrelsome and pugnacious and drive off 

 neighboring males from their domains. In the case of the typical 

 form, however, it is not unusual to find a pair or two nesting in or 

 close to a fieldfare colony. In fact, this is so frequent that it can 

 hardly be considered fortuitous; probably the redwings gain protection 

 by nesting near their larger and more aggressive relatives. In Europe 

 the breeding haunts are chiefly the woodlands of birch and alder, 

 though the birds may also be found nesting in pines where the trees are 

 rather small, and they seem to have a distinct partiality for the vicin- 

 ity of swampy ground. The nest may be placed at a height of 20 

 feet or so in a tree, but more often lower, and very commonly on a 

 low stump or actually on the ground at the foot of a tree, beneath a 

 bush, or in a bank. Although in northern Europe and Asia the red- 

 wing is primarily a bird of wooded country, it nevertheless ranges 

 well beyond the forest limit and then habitually nests on the ground 

 among scrub or in a bank or similar site. Seebohm (1879) found it 

 still common in the Yenisei Valley as far as latitude 71°, but not 



