270 rURDTDyE 



lichen called roin-decr moss, and one nest particularly, which 

 I have preserved, is entirely covered with it : when it was 

 fresh, and the fine ramifications of the lichen unbroken, it had 

 a most beautiful appearance." The first eggs (a second brood 

 being frequently produced) from four to six in number, are 

 laid towards the end of May, and much resemble those of 

 the Fieldfare, to be presently described, but usually have a 

 darker ground-colour and the reddish-brown markings fainter, 

 finer and more regularly diffused over the whole surface. 

 Occasionally the ground is of a pale cream-colour, but almost 

 hidden by light-red streaks. They measure from 1-1 to 

 •92 by from '83 to 'GO in. When the young are hatched, 

 the parents fly suddenly towards an intruder, with an angry 

 note, snapping their bill and then wheeling out of sight. 



Linnfcus, in the account of his tour in Lapland, terms the 

 Redwing's song "delightful", and adds that "Its lofty and 

 varied notes rival those of the Nightingale herself." Other 

 travellers have accorded the same high praise, which to some, 

 and among them the present Editor, seems extravagant. His 

 opinion entirely coincides with that of one, in whose com- 

 pany he has often hoard it. Wolley thus writes of it : — " A 

 string of three or four notes — fiit-tiU-tut — in a regularly de- 

 scending scale, and then a little inward twittering or warb- 

 ling, the former at al)out the ordinary pitch of the voice of 

 the Song-Thrush (whose music, by the way, is infinitely 

 superior), but the last part so faint and feeble as scarcely 

 to amount to a whisper, and only to be heard at a short 

 distance." The constant repetition of this strain, though 

 a striking woodland-sound, becomes tiresome, and in a 

 land which re-echoes the melody of the Song- Thrush and 

 ]3luethroat, the name of "Nightingale," applied to the Red- 

 wing, seems ironical. The inward twittering, which forms 

 the final part of the song, may often be heard in this country 

 in spring, and has been well likened to the combination of 

 sounds which may be heard from a flock of Linnets. 



During summer the Redwing finds a home in Iceland also, 

 breeding there and occasionally straying to Greenland, while 

 on its j)assage to and from the former it occurs in the Freroes. 



