110 IN NATURE'S WAYS 



fullers," sometimes as " bluefelts," or " bluebacks," 

 in allusion to the bluish grey of the lower part of the 

 back, which shows up in flight. They haunt open 

 country, travelling in little parties and also in large 

 flocks great travellers they are, here one day, gone 

 the next. 



When first they arrive, food awaits them in plenty, 

 insects of many kinds, hips and haws, barberry, 

 juniper, and mountain-ash berries they take to almost 

 any kind of wild fruit. Many a mile of whitethorn 

 hedge has been sown by the seeds they have ejected 

 after feasting. After hard weather, when frosts break 

 up, they are seen feeding where the diligent moles 

 have thrown up hillocks. Perhaps moles know as 

 well as any animal when a thaw is about to set in ; 

 they are then able to work near the surface again, and 

 by their tunnellings throw up food for the birds. 

 It is an old sign that a thaw is due when in frosty 

 weather you see fieldfares or other thrushes feeding 

 about molehills. 



The roosting habits of fieldfares are an interesting 

 study. When they are flying to their roosting-place, 

 in heath, on the ground, or in low bushes, their harsh, 

 loud cry is heard, then they are seen to wheel round 

 before settling, becoming very noisy after alighting, 

 remaining on the look-out for any danger all through 

 the night hours. 



Their loud cries, which we always hear when they 

 are flying over our heads bird calling to bird gives 

 us some faint idea of what a babel of sound must 

 arise in a fieldfare nesting colony, in some far Nor- 

 wegian forest, where hundreds of nests are grouped 

 together, and all the parent birds are busy, through 

 the long summer days and the short, light nights, 

 with their family affairs. 



