REDWING. 29 
is often absurdly conspicuous, and the blue eggs would 
court detection were it not for the protective tints of 
the brooding bird as she crouches low in the nest with 
her bill held almost vertically and her speckled breast 
concealed. 
With the return of mild weather in spring the voice 
of the Song Thrush is heard on every side throughout 
the day, and often until long after dark; and after the 
moult the bird sings in the late autumn and through the 
winter if the weather be open. In the height of the 
breeding season we have sometimes seen it singing on 
the ground. 
A migratory movement has been observed in autumn. 
On October 21st and 23rd, and again on November 10th, 
1884, males and females were noted in company at the 
Dee Lightship. 
REDWING. 
TuRDUS ILIAcus, Linnzeus. 
The Redwing, in varying numbers, is a winter visitor 
to Cheshire. Arriving late in autumn—in 1885 they 
were observed at the Dee Lightship between October 
15th and 30th?—it remains through the winter, making 
its way north again early in spring. Mr. R. Newstead 
observed large numbers in the Eaton woods, near 
Chester, in 1889, as late as April 15th. 
The Redwing suffers more than the other Thrushes 
from severe weather, and if a frost be of long duration 
many succumb. Shy and retiring in its habits if the 
weather be mild, it becomes very tame when the ground 
is frozen hard, and is then compelled to resort to berry- 
1 Report on the Migration of Birds, 1884. 2 Thid. 1885. 
3 W. H. Dobie, ‘ Birds of West Cheshire, etc.’ Proceedings of the 
Chester Society of Natural Science and Literature, Part iv., 1893, 
p. 286. 
