MERULID®. 65 
Yarrell says, in his history of the Redwing, that it 
does not bear cold so well as the Fieldfare ; but this 
by no means agrees with my own observation, for 
I have often found Fieldfares in hard weather quite 
weak and exhausted by starvation, hardly able to get 
out of the way, the Redwings at the same time 
appearing much as usual. A note in the ‘ Zoolo- 
gist, by Mr. Cordeaux, dated March 2nd, 1865, 
quite bears out my own observation: it is as fol- 
lows :—‘‘ During the late severe frost and snow 
I have found Fieldfares starved to death, generally 
in the vicinity of running water, but so far not a 
single Redwing. During the frost the Redwings 
subsisted, I believe, nearly entirely on snails, both 
the large common snail and the pretty variegated 
sort: judging from the broken shells, the number 
of the latter snails destroyed by Redwings must be 
enormous. In a walk near the Humber the other 
day I saw several small flocks of Redwings, and 
every prominent stone was strewn around with 
broken fragments of snail-shells. I have lately on 
several occasions seen these birds hammering away 
against a stone. I do not think the Fieldfares resort: 
to the same diet, and have often watched to ascer- 
tain if they did so, but without avail; had they 
been in the habit of feeding upon snails they would 
probably not have fallen victims to the frost.” 
There is another observation of Yarrell’s that I 
do not quite agree with either: he says the Red-. 
G3 
