210 MERULIM. 



must be Shrikes, but which afterwards proved to be Field- 

 fares. We were soon delighted by the discovery of seve- 

 ral of their nests, and were surprised to find them (so con- 

 trary to the habits of other species of the genus Turdus 

 with which we are acquainted) breeding in society. Their 

 nests were at various heights from the ground, from four 

 feet to thirty or forty feet or upwards ; 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 : none of 

 them yet contained more than three eggs, although we 

 afterwards found that five was more commonly the number 

 than four, and that even six was very frequent ; they are 

 very similar to those of the Blackbird, and even more so to 

 the Ring Ouzel. The Fieldfare is the most abundant bird 

 in Norway, and is generally diffused over that part which 

 we visited; building, as already noticed, in society, two 

 hundred nests or more being frequently seen within a very 

 small space." The eggs are light blue, mottled over with 

 spots of dark red brown ; the length one inch three lines, 

 the breadth ten lines. 



Wm. Christy, Esq., Jun., who, with a party of natural- 

 ists, visited Norway in the summer of 1836, says, on the 

 mountains called the Dovrefeld, Fieldfares were rearing 

 their young ; they were just able to fly about on the 6th 

 of August. 



The call-note of the Fieldfare is harsh ; but its song is 

 soft and melodious. In confinement it soon becomes recon- 

 ciled, and sings agreeably. At night when at large it fre- 



