1648 



THE PERCHING BIRDS 



can often be heard, passing over the house tops of the towns, calling at frequent 

 intervals to their companions. The redwing is not a very hardy bird, suffering 

 severely in protracted frost, even while other birds are able to retain sound condition. 

 The explanation of this must be sought for in the fact that it subsists upon worms 

 and other insects rather than upon berries. The adult is olive brown above; a broad 

 line of buffy white passes over the eye; the under parts are white, streaked with 

 brown, and the flanks and under wing coverts are bright rufous. 



The fieldfare ( 7! pilaris) is the most abundant of all the northern 

 thrushes, alike in the pine-clad valleys and in the regions of birch. It 

 breeds in colonies, and the nests are placed in fir trees and birches at various eleva- 

 tions, some being as much as fifteen feet from the ground. They are generally 



built of long, dry fine grass, 

 with a coating of mud or 

 clay between the outer and 

 inner layers of that material. 

 Professor Collett relates that 

 a fieldfare once nested in a 

 jnilk pail inside a dairy, 

 and successfully reared its 

 young; and Mr. Dresser 

 found a nest in a hollow top 

 of a rotten stump, not a foot 

 above the ground. When- 

 ever an intruder approaches 

 their nest, the old birds fly 

 round, tittering loud and 

 harsh cries, and thus attract 

 attention to the whereabouts 

 of their treasure. The eggs 

 THE FIELDFARE. of the fieldfare resemble 



those of the blackbird, being 



bluish green in ground color, speckled and blotched with reddish brown. The 

 young are fairly tame when they first leave the nest, but soon become shy and wary 

 even on their nesting grounds. It is possible that their shyness or boldness may 

 depend upon the extent to which the birds are molested. Myriads of fieldfares 

 annually cross the German Ocean to winter in the British Isles and Central Europe, 

 and on one occasion a solitary straggler landed as far west as Iceland. The adult 

 male has the head and hind-neck ashy gray, the feathers of the crown having dark 

 centres; the back and wing coverts are rich chestnut brown; the wings and tail 

 blackish brown; the eyebrows whitish, and the under parts rich ochre, thickly 

 spotted with black. 



The birds of the genus Menila are true thrushes in all structural 

 The Blackbirds . 



characteristics, and differ from the foregoing chiefly in the important 



particular that the plumage of the adult male is more or less widely distinct from 

 that of the female. In a number of species the male bird is black or slaty gray. 



