THE FIELDFARE. 



263 



meutioned, altliougli a delicacy. It arrives in great 

 numbers about October ; and at first, in all the bustle 

 of settling, may be shot at without much difficulty. 

 Its back feathers are of shades of ash colour ; its head 

 of a light ash; its bill is yellowish black; and the 

 bird is immediately known from the length of its 

 mouth hairs, or whiskers. Its breast is spotted with 

 dark colom-s on a light ground; its rump is ash 

 colour. Its bill is slender and soft, capable only of 

 attacking berries and insects' eggs ; it is, therefore, 

 one of the large class of necessary helps to man's com- 

 fort and convenience, as it assists to destroy the ver- 

 min that infests the trees and vegetables cultivated by 

 him. The fieldfares are fattest while their autumnal 

 food still hangs on the bush, or remains on the ground ; 

 after which time they have recourse to the moist soils 

 for worms. Mr. White says, that it is rather sur- 

 prising, in the natural histoiy of these charming 

 edibles, that being of habits nearly akin to those of 

 so many other small birds of the soft billed songster 

 tribe, such as blackbirds, thrushes, &c., they should 

 not be kno wii to have bred together. He also observes 

 that the fieldfare roosts on the ground at night (the 

 period when the fowlers' nets are principally spread 

 for their captives over stubble and meadow), while 

 in the day-time it always perches high, on the tops of 

 the tallest trees and hedgerows. It appears that, con- 

 sidering the prodigious flocks that sometimes alight 

 on our coasts, we secure but a small quantity of these 

 birds, in comparison with the numbers captured on 



