280 



NOTES ON BRITISH BIRDS. 



By the Rev. George Jeans. 



[ Continued from iKuje 2 CO.] 

 Starling. — This bird brings out three families in the year so fVir 

 north as Tetuey. A pair did so for seven years, forsaking the place 

 (which was purposely constructed for them) in 184'2. 



Missel Thrush. — Is quite as predatory as the shrike, small birds 

 being indeed a regular part of its diet. On Feb. 11, 1840, three missel 

 thrushes, two cocks and one hen, were on the wing about my house at 

 Tetney for some time ; the males singing, apparently in rivalry, while in 

 the air. 



Fieldfare. — A large flock were together late in May, 1840, at Tet- 

 ney, and a pupil, F. Holt, shot at them. It is curious that of the thrush 

 tribe the fieldfare is reckoned a delicacy in North and East Germany, the 

 Redwing in Suabia, the song thrush or Lijster in Holland, where exten- 

 sive plantations are formed and laid out for their capture as a commercial 

 speculation. The blackbird, or Dominee (=parson) as the Dutch in 

 derision call him, is reckoned inferior for the table in all. Whereas with 

 us the blackbird is rather the best, and the fieldfare certainly the worst. 

 The fieldfare roosts on the ground, and generally by the side of hedges. 



Blackbird.— The late Mrs. Carpenter, sister of the Bishop of Nor- 

 wich (Stanley), had among her feathered pets at Hawke House, Sunbury, 

 a blackbird, so tame as to come at her call and settle on her hand, even 

 while I was walking with her. 



Thrush. — The late Colonel Stapleton, of Thorpe Sea House, near 

 Egham, who never would permit a nesting bird to be disturbed on his 

 premises, whatever the inconvenience to himself, — of which therefore some 

 amusing instances occurred, — once showed me a thrush on her nest in the 

 porch over the kitchen door. She resented his indelicacy with great 

 anger, but it never occurred to her to leave her charge because of the 

 interruption of a stranger. 



Ring Ouzel. — I doubt if" mountain " be a characteristic resort of this 

 species. The first I ever shot or saw was in the margin between the high 

 cultivated lands of Rowner and the shingle of Brown Down, where Gomer 

 No. 19, Feh. 1. U 



