THE TRUE THRUSHES. 



21 



visits the eastern coasts. Its time of arrival varies, according 

 to the severity of the winters in its European home, which 

 force it to migrate, but it sometimes comes as early as the 

 middle of September, though flocks are also seen to land as 

 late as the end of November. It has been known to stay 

 as late as May and even early June, according to Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, but all statements of its breeding in the British 

 Islands have so far been found untrustworthy, and the nests of 

 the " Fieldfare " which have been sent to us from Ross-shire 

 and other parts of Scotland have always turned out to be those 

 of the Mistle-Thrush. 



Range outside the British Islands. — A northern bird in Europe 

 and Siberia, its breeding range extending east to no Q E. long. 

 Its breeding range does not reach quite so far north as that of 

 the Redwing, extending to the Arctic Circle, up to the limit of 

 forest growth or a little beyond it, and Mr. Seebohm met with it 

 in the Petchora up to 68S N. lat, and in the Yenesei up to 70I . 

 It also breeds in Central Russia, the Baltic Provinces, Eastern 

 Prussia, and Poland, and colonies are being formed in several 

 places in Germany. In winter it migrates south, visiting North 

 and North-eastern Africa and to the eastward Turkestan, while it 

 is also said to occur in the Western Himalayas and Cashmere; the 

 only Indian specimen known in collections, however, is one in 

 the British Museum, procured by Dr. Jameson near Saharanpur. 



Habits. — This is one of the most beautiful Thrushes in the 

 world, and nothing can be finer than to see a flock of newly- 

 arrived Fieldfares settling on a tree, after landing on our 

 eastern coasts. Not only the size of the birds, but their rich 

 contrast of colour, white breasts, and above all the way in 

 which they hold themselves, with their ample white axillaries 

 always more or less in evidence — all these features tend to 

 make the Fieldfares a remarkable object, as they sit on the 

 leafless boughs and are outlined against the sky. These 

 Thrushes are always gregarious, arriving in bands, feeding 

 together throughout the winter, and nesting in companies on 

 their return to their northern home. They are always shy 

 during their stay in England, and are the less easily observed of 

 all the Thrushes, though they become tamer in severe weather, 

 and then visit parks and gardens, even in the middle of the 



