FIELDFARE. 77 



are blown over its surface, and that wMcli but now bad 

 the charm of novelty will weary from its monotony in a 

 long winter. 



Now is the season for tbe noisy Fieldfares, chatter- 

 ing amongst the trees in the open country. How large 

 they look in the dark foggy mornings as they hurry 

 across the fields on the shghtest alarm, looming through 

 the mist as big as ring-doves, and whether singly or in 

 flocks always wary ; trying the patience of the youthful 

 gunner, who may reckon amongst his holiday exploits 

 many fruitless attempts, to stalk up to and bag 

 the Christmas fulfer. Regular and numerous winter 

 visitants to this county, they usually make their appear- 

 ance in November and leave us again towards the end 

 of April, but their movements in both cases depend 

 much upon the season, having occurred as early as the 

 14th of October, and in the cold spring of 1860 small 

 flocks were still met with up to the middle of May. 

 An instance is also recorded by Messrs. Sheppard and 

 Whitear, of a fieldfare having been killed at Cromer 

 during the first week in June, but I am not aware 

 that the nest of this species has ever been found in 

 Norfolk, although Yarrell has recorded one or two 

 doubtful instances in more southern counties. Mr. St. 

 John, in his "Natural History and Sport in Moray," 

 speaks of the fieldfares in severe weather doing much 

 damage by feeding on the Swedish turnips, scooping 

 pieces out with their beaks, and thus letting the frost 

 into the roots, a charge which I never remember to 

 have heard made against them in this county. A 

 specimen nearly white was killed at Hickling in 1848, 

 and a beautiful variety with the back and upper portions 

 of the wings and tail Hght buff, marked with a few 

 darker blotches, and the under parts of the body and 

 wings cream coloured, was shot at Swardestone in 

 March, 1858. 



