THE FIELDFARE. 21 



breeding place of the Fieldfare is au event in the life of the 

 ornithologist never to be forgotten. As you drive along the 

 excellent Norwegian roads in the carioles or light gigs of 

 the country, through the pine-forests or by the side of the 

 cultivated land near the villages, there is little in the bird- 

 life to remind you that you are not in one of the mountainous 

 districts of England. As you approach the Dovrefjeld, 

 however, the ground rises, the pines become smaller, and the 

 hill-sides are sprinkled over with birch-trees. Now is the 

 time to look out for the Fieldfare. Presently the long 

 watched-for 'tsak-tsak' is heard. You tie your horse to the 

 nearest tree, climb the hill- side whence the sound came, and 

 presently you find yourself in a colony of Fieldfares. The 

 birds make a great uproar as you invade their domain, but 

 soon escape beyond gun-shot, and their distant 'tsak-tsak' is 

 the only sound you can hear. Your natural impulse is to 

 ascend the first tree where you can see a nest, which is 

 almost sure to be placed in a fork of a birch-tree against the 

 trunk and the first large branch. Close by are sure to be 

 many more nests, some built in the flat horizontal branch 

 of a pine ; and outlying nests belonging to the colony will 

 be found for some distance all round. The nest is very 

 similar to the Blackbird's or the Eiug Ouzel's in construction 

 and materials. The eggs are from four to six in number, the 

 average type resembling a very handsome Blackbird's egg." ^ 

 The subject of our notice has been celebrated as a 

 luxury for the table, and is supposed to have been the 

 Thrush so highly esteemed by the Eomans, which was fat- 

 tened by a paste of figs and flour.- It is often cooked for the 

 table when it is shot in autumn, and is excellent eating at 

 that season. 



1 History of British Birds, vol. i. 1883, pp. 229, 232. 

 - See Macgillivray's British Birds, vol. ii. p. 111. 



