76 MERULID^E. 



it adds to its diet suck worms and grubs as it can discover ; 

 and, if it be not belied, it is much given to plunder the 

 nests of other birds of their eggs and young. It may be 

 on this account that Magpies, Jays, and other large wood- 

 land birds, robbers themselves, entertain an instinctive 

 dislike towards it. Certainly these birds are its bitter 

 enemies ; but in the breeding season it eludes their ani- 

 mosity by quitting the woods, and resorting to the haunts 

 of man. Its harsh screech is now rarely heard, for its 

 present object is not defiance, but immunity from danger. 

 Yet it takes no extraordinary pains to conceal its nest. 

 On the contrary, it usually places this where there is little 

 or no foliage to shadow it, in a fork between two large 

 boughs of an apple, pear, or cherry tree, sometimes only 

 a few feet from the ground, and sometimes twenty feet or 

 more. The nest is a massive structure consisting of an 

 external basket-work of twigs, roots, and lichens, within 

 which is a kind of bowl of mud containing a final lining 

 of grass and roots. The bird is an early builder, and is 

 too often doomed to see its labour become the prey of the 

 keen-eyed village boy, against whom, while engaged in his 

 work of depredation, though all-powerless to save, it fre- 

 quently directs a volley of agitated screams. It generally 

 lays five eggs, and feeds its young on snails, worms, and 



insects. 



I 



THE FIELDFAKE. 



TURDUS PILARIS. 



Head, nape, and lower part of the back dark ash colour ; upper part of the back 

 and wing-coverts chestnut brown ; lore black ; a white rim above the eyes ; 

 throat and breast yellowish red with oblong dark spots ; feathers on the flanks 

 spotted with black and edged with white ; abdomen pure white without spots ; 

 under wing-coverts white ; beak brown, tipped with black. Length ten inches, 

 breadth seventeen inches. Eggs light blue, mottled all over with dark red 

 brown spots. 



THE Fieldfare is little inferior in size to the Missel 

 Thrush, with which, however, it is not likely to be con- 



