AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 93 



exposed. I emptied the water from the nest, which 

 I carefully replaced, and a few days afterwards found 

 the parent bird sitting hard, as if nothing had 

 happened ; she, however, did not succeed in rearing a 

 brood, as the eggs were destroyed by some predatory 

 animal, which, I am inclined to think, was a Squirrel. 

 I have several times found old nests of this bird in 

 the winter months entirely filled up with moss and 

 beech-leaves, and was rather puzzled to account for 

 this, till I one day found a pair of Dormice fast 

 asleep in one of these snug resorts, a Song-Thrush's 

 nest, from which two broods had been reared during 

 the previous summer. I have seen more than one 

 pied specimen of this bird in our neighbourhood. 



31. REDWING. 



Turdus iliacus. 



The Redwing arrives in our neighbourhood from 

 the north generally during the last days of September ; 

 on reference to my journals I find that the 25th of 

 that month is about the usual date for their first 

 appearance with us, though for 1869 I find no record 

 of having observed any till October 7th. With us 

 the Redwing seldom arrives in abundance at first, 

 but in ordinary circumstances its numbers keep 

 increasing gradually, till sometimes the hedge-rows 

 and thorn bushes swarm with them, until the frosts 

 scatter and eventually drive them all away. This 

 bird is said by Yarrell to be less of a berry-feeder 

 than most of the other species of the genus. It 

 certainly seems to be one of the first to suffer from 

 frost and consequent hardness of the ground, and, as 

 most of my readers must have observed, is more often 



