THE BISHOP AND THE BIRDS. 159 



it is amusing to see them in calm weather hopping about in all 

 directions, stopping now and then to pick up their food, or to look 

 around them. In this respect they resemble the Song Thrush, as 

 well as the Kedwing and Missel Thrush, with the two latter of 

 which they often temporarily associate. They are very shy, seldom 

 allowing a person to approach within a hundred yards in an open 

 field, although when on trees they are somewhat less suspicious. In 

 the former situation they keep at a distance from the hedges or walls, 

 and fly off in a body ; but in the latter several individuals frequently 

 remain behind the main body, and may sometimes be shot. 



Thus they are described in Gisborne's ' Walks in a 

 Forest': 



Lo! on yon branch, whose naked spray o'ertops 

 The oak's still clustering shade, the Fieldfares sit, 

 Torpid and motionless, yet peering round 

 Suspicious of deceit. At our approach, 

 They mount, and, loudly chattering from on high, 

 Bid the wild woods of human guile beware. 



The following story, by a German author, will be read 

 with interest by those who have followed us thus far through 

 our account of the feathered inhabitants of these islands: 



THE BISHOP AND THE BIRDS. A bishop, who had for his arms 

 two Fieldfares, with the motto, * Are not two Sparrows sold for a 

 farthing?' thus explains the matter to an intimate friend : Fifty 

 or sixty years ago, a little boy resided at a little village near 

 Dillengen, on the banks of the Danube. His parents were very 

 poor, and almost as soon as the boy could walk he was sent into the 

 woods to pick up sticks for fuel. When he grew older, his father 

 taught him to pick the juniper-berries, and carry them to a neigh- 

 bouring distiller, who wanted them for making hollands. Day by 

 day the poor boy went to his task, and on his road he passed by the 

 open windows of the village school, where he saw the schoolmaster 

 teaching a number of boys of about the same age as himself. He 

 looked at these boys with feelings almost of envy, so earnestly did 

 he long to be among them. He was quite aware it was in vain to 

 ask his father to send him to school, for he knew that his parents 

 had no money to pay the schoolmaster; and he often passed the 

 whole day thinking, while he was gathering his juniper-berries, 

 what he could possibly do to please the schoolmaster, in the hope of 

 getting some lessons. One day, when he was walking sadly along, 

 he saw two of the boys belonging to the school trying to set a bird- 

 trap, and he asked one what it was for. The boy told him that the 

 schoolmaster was very fond of Fieldfares, and that they were setting 

 the trap to catch some. This delighted the poor boy, for he recol- 

 lected he had often seen a great number of these birds in the 



