HAWS AND HEPS. 



these " stores of haws and heps" are perfectly fal- 

 lacious. The birds that feed chiefly upon the fruit 

 of the white thorn, and the wild rose, are the field- 

 fare (turdus pilaris), and the redwing (turd us 

 iliacus) ; and that they do so, every sportsman has 

 had the most manifest conviction : yet it has been 

 said recently, that these creatures do not eat these 

 fruits ; and said too by an eminent and amiable 

 man, with whom I have frequently had the honour 

 of conversing^ and always with profit*. Were he 

 living, his love of science would encourage my ob- 

 servations, though not in unison with his opinion : 

 my breath shall not agitate his ashes, nor will his 

 spirit, I am certain, frown in anger at my lines. It 

 must be premised, 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 low- 

 lands, 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 



* Substance of a paper read before the Royal Society, Nov. 27, 

 1824. " See Zoological Magazine, vol. i. 



