42 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



says: 1 "The nests, often two hundred or more within 

 a small space, were at various heights from the 

 ground, from four feet to thirty or forty feet or up- 

 wards ; they were for the most part placed against 

 the trunk of the spruce fir ; some were, however, 

 at a considerable distance from it, upon the upper 

 surface, and towards the smaller end of the thicker 

 branches ; they resembled most nearly those of the 

 Ring Ouzel ; the outside is composed of sticks, and 

 coarse grass and weeds, gathered wet, matted with 

 a small quantity of clay, and lined with a thick bed 

 of fine dry grass." 



The eggs, usually five or six in number, are 

 " very similar to those of the Blackbird, and even 

 more so to those of the Ring Ouzel." 



Mr. Hewitson states that the Fieldfare is the 

 most abundant bird in Norway; 2 and the late Mr. 

 Wheelwright, better known, perhaps, by his nom de 

 plume " The Old Bushman," has remarked that in 

 Lapland, next to the Brambling (Fringilla monti- 

 fringilla), it is the commonest bird in the forest. 



1 Eggs of British Birds, i. p. 58. 



2 See also Mr. Norman's " Nat. Hist. Notes in Norway," Zoologist, 

 1864, p. 8865. 



