8 FIELDFARE. 



There are even grounds for believing that it nests in the wooded 

 portions of the Alps and the Pyrenees, but as yet proof of this is 

 wanting. Its migrations extend to the African side of the Mediter- 

 ranean, Asia Minor, Palestine, Persia, Turkestan, and Northern India. 

 In the forest regions of Northern Europe Fieldfares often breed 

 in large colonies, and in the midst of such an assemblage Mr. A. C. 

 Chapman found a nest with three eggs of the Merlin ! In birch 

 and fir woods the nest is in a fork between the trunk and a large 

 branch ; but further north, where the birds become less gregarious, 

 heaps of fire-wood, fences, shepherds' huts, &c., are utilized ; while 

 on the treeless tiindi-as of Siberia the nest is placed on the ground, 

 on the edge of a rock or a bank. In Poland breeding com- 

 mences in April, 'but in the north hardly before the latter part of 

 May. The eggs, 4-6, sometimes 7, resemble very handsome Black- 

 bird's, but they vary greatly, some being boldly blotched with reddish- 

 brown like Ring-Ouzel's, while others have a light blue ground 

 colour: average dimensions i"2 by "85 in. Two broods are gene- 

 rally produced in the season. The old birds are very noisy when 

 the breeding-place is approached, uttering their harsh cries of tsak, 

 tsak; the call-note or love song, uttered by the male when on the 

 wing, is a softer warbling qtii, qui. The food of the young consists 

 principally of insects, until the wild strawberries and other fruits are 

 ripe ; and owing to its fondness for the juniper, this species is known 

 in Germany as the ' Wachholder-drossel.' It generally roosts in trees ; 

 sometimes in reed-beds ; also on the ground in stubble-fields. 



The young Fieldfare on leaving the nest is spotted on the back 

 like the young of other Thrushes, moulting again, as do the parents, 

 before migration. The birds arrive in this country with broad mar- 

 gins to the feathers of the lower parts, but by the following spring 

 these edges have disappeared and the spots become more clearly 

 defined, leaving the bird in its nuptial dress. This is slate-grey, 

 streaked with black on the head ; mantle chestnut-brown ; rump 

 slate-grey ; wings and tail dark brown ; throat and breast golden- 

 brown streaked with black, the flanks boldly marked with very dark 

 brown ; centre of the belly white ; under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 pure white ; bill, which was darker in winter, is now yellow ; legs and 

 toes very dark brown. The female is somewhat duller in colour 

 than the male. Length fully 10 in. ; wing 5 7 in. Albinisms of this 

 Thrush are comparatively rare. Like many of its congeners, it ex- 

 hibits a {^\v slender hair-like filaments projectin'g from the nape, and 

 to the accident of their being especially noticed in this species the 

 name//7<:7;v> is probably due. 



