HAWS AND HEPS. 259 



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 (turdus 

 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 mea- 

 dows to resort to, and they then feed on the haws 

 as long as they remain. In this county, the exten- 

 sive 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 



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

 1824. See Zoological Magazine, vol, i. 



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