22 IN A CHESHIRE GARDEN 



they are not so noticeable. The points of 

 difference between a redwing and a throstle, 

 the rather smaller size, the red on the side, 

 the slight variations in shades of colour and 

 markings, may easily be passed over. 



I have from my window seen a single red- 

 wing quite close to the house, in company 

 with a single fieldfare, both busy with the 

 holly berries, and in February, 1909, I saw 

 all five of the commoner British thrushes 

 collected together and between them quite 

 covering a field which had lately been broken 

 up by a subsoil cultivator. 



A farmer tells me that the local name for 

 redwing is " Kit," but I see in " The Birds 

 of Cheshire " that " Kit " is given as one of 

 the names for fieldfare. 



We see fieldfares chiefly when they first 

 arrive in October, and again in early spring, 

 before they leave, but, of course, there are 

 some with us most of the winter. The people 

 here call them " Bluebacks," and it was 

 remarked as a curious thing in the late cold 

 spring of 1891 that on April 24th bluebacks 

 were heard on one side of a field and a cuckoo 

 on the other. 



Blackbirds are, I think, nearly as plentiful 

 as throstles, in spite of relentless persecution 

 by strawberry-growing market gardeners. 

 Sometimes, indeed, one is oneself compelled 

 to own that we have a few more blackbirds 

 than we really want. In hot, dry summers, 



