680 



of Batumi ^ 



brightest on the head, and inclining to olive 

 on the rump and tail : throat and breast 

 white, tinged with buff, and sprinkled all 

 over with dusky spots : belly and vent pure 

 white : eyes surrounded with a white circle : 

 legs and elaws flesh colour. Very little dif- 

 ference in the colour of the sexes. This spe- 

 cies inhabits the whole of North America, 

 from Hudson's Bay to Florida : its song is 

 heard every morning and evening during the 

 months of May and June, and is greatly ad- 

 mired ; but during the day it is silent : its 

 favourite haunts are thick shaded hollows by 

 the sides of brooks or rivulets : its nest, made 

 of withered beech leaves with layers of dry 

 grass mixed with mud, and lined with dry 

 fibrous roots, is often placed in an alder bush. 

 Its eggs are four or five in number, aiid of a 

 light blue colour. 



The REDWING THRUSH, (Turdus iliacus), 

 like the Fieldfare, which it much resembles, 

 is migrate?, generally arriving in Britain 

 about the latter end of September, and 

 departing gradually, not in flocks, in the 

 spring. It is about eight inches and a half 

 in length : the flanks and beneath the wings 

 are deep rufous ; the back brown, inclining 

 to olive green ; a conspicuous pale streak 

 over the eye ; and longitudinal markings on 

 the under parts. It is abundant in Norway, 

 Sweden, and Prussia. Its nest is placed in a 

 low bush or shrub ; and it lays five or six 

 blue-green eggs; spotted with black. Its 

 song is not very attractive. 



lu Mr. Hewitson's elegant work on the 

 Eggs of Birds, is the following interesting 

 account of the Redwing : " In our long ram- 

 bles through the boundless forest scenery of 

 Norway, or during our visits to some of its 

 thousand isles, whether by ni^ht or by day, 

 the loud, wild, and most delicious song of 

 the Redwing seldom failed to cheer us. Un- 

 like its neighbour the fieldfare, it was soli- 

 tary and shy, and on our approach to the 

 tree on the top of which it was perched, 

 would drop down and hide itself in the thick 

 of the brushwood. Throughout that part of 

 the country which we visited, it is known 

 by the name of Nightingale, and well it de- 

 serves to lie so ; to a sweeter songster I have 

 never listened. Like the nightingale of more 

 southern skies, its clear sweet song would 

 occasionally delight us during the hours of 

 night, if the two or three delightful hours of 

 twilight which succeed the long day of a 

 Norwegian summer can be called night. 

 The bi rds, like the other inhabitants of the 

 country, seem loth to lose in sleep a portion 

 of this short-lived season. 



"Anxious to extend our researches on- 

 wards, in the hope that as we proceeded 

 north we should prove more successful, we 

 had lingered but little to search for the nest 

 and eggs of the Redwing, and our inquiries 

 with regard to them had been unavailing. 

 One afternoon, as we approached the sea- 

 coast, and at the same time the northern 

 limit of a beaten road, we discovered a nest 

 oi' the Redwing, but to our great disappoint- 

 ment it had young ones. Having almost 

 reached the boundary of our woodland ram- 

 bles for the present, we spent the whole of 



the following day in exploring the beautiful 

 woods by which we were on all sides sur- 

 rounded. We found a second nest of the 

 Redwing, but the eggs were again hatched. 

 The nest of the Redwing is placed, like those 

 of the thrush and blackbird, in the centre of 

 a thorn or other thick bush. It is similar to 

 those of the blackbird, fieldfare, and ring 

 ouzel. Outwardly, it is formed of moss, 

 roots, and dry grass ; inwardly, cemented 

 with clay, and again lined with finer grass." 

 The author of ' The Journal of a Natural- 

 ist ' says it is well known to every sportsman 

 that the Redwing and the Fieldfare feed 

 chiefly upon " heps and haws," the fruit of 

 the white thorn and the wild rose. Yet he 

 admits that "these birds, generally speak- 

 ing, give the preference to insect food and 

 worms ; and when flights of them have 

 taken their station near the banks of large 

 rivers, margined by lowlands, we shall find 

 that the bulk of them will remain there, and 

 feed in those places ; and, in the uplands, 

 we shall observe small restless parties only. 

 But in the midland and some other counties, 

 the flocks that are resident have not always 

 these meadows to resort to, and they then 

 feed on the haws as long as they remain. 

 In this county, the extensive lowlands of 

 the river Severn in open weather are visited 

 by prodigious flocks of these birds ; but as 

 soon as snow falls, or hard weather comes 

 on, they leave these marshy lands, because 

 their insect food is covered or become scarce, 

 visit the uplands to feed on the produce of 

 the hedges, and we see them all day long 

 passing over our heads in large flights on 

 some distant progress, in the same manner 

 as our larks, at the commencement of a 

 snowy season, repair to the turnip fields of 

 Somerset and Wiltshire. They remain ab- 

 sent during the continuance of those causes 

 which incited their migration ; but, as the 

 frost breaks up, and even before the thaw 

 has actually commenced, we sec a large por- 

 tion of these passengers returning to their 

 worm and insect food in the meadows, at- 

 tended probably by many that did not take 

 flight with them though a great number 

 remain in the upland pastures, feeding pro- 

 miscuously as they can." 



The RED-BREASTED THRUSH. (Turdus 

 migratariits.) This species of the Thrush, to 

 which the name of the ROBIN is also com- 

 monly applied, is one of the loudest and most 

 delightful songsters of the North American 

 continent. " His notes," as Dr. Richardson 

 truly remarks, " resemble those of the com- 

 mon Thrush, but are not so loud. Within 

 the arctic circle the woods are silent in the 

 bright light of noon-day, but towards mid- 

 night, when the sun travels near the horizon, 

 and the shades of the forest are lengthened, 

 the concert commences, and continues till 

 six or seven in the morning. Even in these 

 remote regions, the assertion of those natu- 

 ralists who have declared that the feathered 

 tribes of America are void of harmony, might 

 be fully disproved. Indeed, the transition is 

 so sudden from the perfect repose, the death- 

 like silence of an arctic winter, to the ani- 

 mated bustle of summer ; the trees spread their 



