78 MERULID^E. 



but build their nests many together in the same wood. In 

 this country, they are wild and cautious birds, resorting 

 during open weather to watercourses and damp pastures, 

 where they feed on worms and insects, and when frost sets 

 in betaking themselves to bushes in quest of haws and 

 other berries ; or in very severe weather resorting to the 

 muddy or sandy sea-shore. They frequent also commons 

 on which the Juniper abounds, the berries of this shrub 

 affording them an abundant banquet. Unlike the Black- 

 bird and Thrush, they rarely seek for food under hedges, 

 but keep near the middle of fields, as if afraid of being 

 molested by some concealed enemy. When alarmed, they 

 either take refuge in the branches of a high tree in the 

 neighbourhood, or remove altogether to a distant field. 

 The song of the Fieldfare I have never heard : Toussenel 

 doubts whether it has any ; Yarrell describes it as " soft 

 and melodious;" Bechstein, as "a mere harsh disagreeable 

 warble ; " while a writer in the " Zoologist," * who heard 

 one sing during the mild January of 1846, in Devon, de- 

 scribes it as "combining the melodious whistle of the 

 Blackbird with the powerful voice of the Missel Thrush." 

 Its call-note is short and harsh, and has in France given 

 it the provincial names of Tia-tia and Tchatcha. This 

 latter name accords with Macgillivray's mode of spelling 

 its note, yack chuck, harsh enough, no one will deny. For 

 a description of it in its summer haunts we must refer to 

 Hewitson, who visited Norway mainly with the object of 

 observing the habits of the Fieldfare and Redwing. " Our 

 attention was attracted by the harsh cries of several birds 

 which we at first supposed must be Shrikes, but which 

 afterwards proved to be Fieldfares. We were now delighted 

 by the discovery of several of their nests, and were surprised 

 to find them (so contrary to the habits of other species of 

 the genus with which we are acquainted) breeding in 

 society. Their nests were at various heights from the 

 * Vol. IV., page 1297. 



