8 FIELDKARE. 



near Halle on the Saale. Its line of migration is more easterly 

 than that of the Redwing, the Fieldfare being rare in Spain and in 

 the Canaries, but it winters in North Africa, and in Western Asia 

 to Northern India. 



In Northern Europe Fieldfares often breed in colonies — and in 

 such assemblages the late Mr. A. C. Chapman and others have 

 found old nests with eggs of the Merlin. Especially in birch, 

 but also in fir woods, gardens and orchards the nest is in a fork 

 between the trunk and a large branch ; further north, where the 

 birds become less gregarious, heaps of firewood, fences, shepherds' 

 huts, (Sec, are utilized ; while on the treeless tundras of Siberia the 

 nest is placed on the ground, on the edge of a rock or a bank. In 

 Poland breeding commences in April, but northward hardly before 

 the middle of May. The 4-6, and even 7, eggs resemble very hand- 

 some Blackbird's, but they vary greatly, some being boldly blotched 

 with reddish-brown like Ring-Ouzel's, while others have a light blue 

 ground colour: dimensions i'2 by "85 in. Two broods are gene- 

 rally produced in the season. The old birds are very noisy when 

 the breeding-place is approached, uttering their harsh cries of tsak, 

 tsak ; the call-note or love song, uttered by the male when on the 

 wing, is a softer warbling qui, qui. The food of the young consists 

 principally of insects until the wild strawberries and other fruits are 

 ripe, and owing to its fondness for the juniper, this species is known 

 in Germany as the ' "Wachholder-drossel ' ; in fact it is a great eater 

 of berries. It generally roosts in trees, and sometimes in reed-beds, 

 or on the ground in stubble-fields. 



The young Fieldfare on leaving the nest is spotted on the back 

 like the young of other Thrushes, moulting again, as do the parents, 

 before migration. The birds arrive in this country with light mar- 

 gins to the feathers of the lower parts, but by the following spring 

 these edges have disappeared and the spots become more clearly 

 defined, leaving the bird in its nuptial dress. The head is then slate- 

 grey, streaked with black ; mantle chestnut-brown ; rump con- 

 spicuously grey; wings and tail dark brown ; tljroat and breast golden 

 brown streaked with black, the flanks boldly marked with very dark 

 brown ; centre of the belly white ; under wing and axillaries pure 

 white ; the bill (which was darker in winter) is now yellow ; the legs 

 and toes are dark brown. The female is somewhat duller in colour 

 than the male. Length 10 in. ; wing 5*5 in. I^ike many of its 

 congeners, this Thrush exhibits a few slender hair-like filaments 

 on the nape, and to the accident of these being noticed in this species 

 the ndiiwe fii/aris is probably due. 



