WINTER BIRDS OF PASSAGE 279 



tinguishable from the clearly articulated ' chak-chak ' of the 

 fieldfare. Redwings can be most easily distinguished from 

 song-thrushes by their smaller size, plumper, more robin-like 

 build, and by their habit of keeping in flocks. These features 

 are plain at a considerable distance ; at close quarters or 

 through a fieldglass, we can tell them by a well-marked 

 pale stripe over the eye, and by the reddish patch on the 

 flank, uncovered by the wing as they fly. They are 

 tenderer birds than fieldfares, nesting in lower and more 

 sheltered woods in Sweden and Norway, and suffering much 

 more severely from hard weather in English winters. In 

 this too they agree with song-thrushes rather than missel- 

 thrushes ; the song-thrush also lives chiefly on worms, slugs 

 and insects, which it cannot obtain from frozen soil, while 

 the missel-thrush's diet of berries is available in any 

 weather, so long as it lasts. 



Bramblings or mountain-finches migrate from the same 

 regions as redwings and fieldfares ; but their visits are much 

 more irregular, and they haunt much more limited areas 

 during the winter. Their great resort is a beech-wood 

 where the ground is well strewn with fallen mast ; and 

 in a district where beech-woods abound their flocks can 

 be found in most winters when there has been a good 

 crop of beech-nuts. They are of much the same size 

 and general habits as chaffinches, which also come in 

 flocks to feed on the beech-mast ; but they can be dis- 

 tinguished by their conspicuous yellow markings upon the 

 wings, and a pale patch above the tail which catches the 

 eye when they fly. The siskin is a smaller and more beauti- 

 ful member of the finch tribe, which sometimes appears in 

 winter in parties and flocks, feeding with linnets and 

 chaffinches, or in the large mixed flocks of sparrows, finches 

 and yellowhammers which haunt the ricks and stackyards 



