398 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



blotched and spotted with sienna-brown and lilac shell-marks, 

 while in a few cases markings are almost absent. Average of 100 

 British eggs, 30.7x22.8 mm. Breeding-season. Begins February, 

 but many do not breed till late March or early April. Incubation. 

 15th day in incubator (Evans) ; 14 days (N. M. Richardson), by 

 hen alone (Richardson), though Naumann says male relieves her 

 at mid-day. Two broods frequently reared. Fledging-period. 

 13-14 days (Brock) ; 15-16 (Richardson). 



FOOD. Largely fruit and berries, but also includes mollusca 

 (slugs) ; annelida (worms) ; insects (coleoptera and their larvae, 

 lepidoptera (larvae), hymenoptera (ants), and larvae of diptera). 

 Also spiders, and known to kill young Song-Thrush, Blackbird 

 and slow-worm. Besides fruit (cherries, apples, plums and black- 

 currants), many kinds of berries or seeds (yew, ash, maple, rowan, 

 juniper, honey-suckle, hawthorn, rose, holly, ivy, bird-cherry, 

 mistletoe, etc.). 



DISTRIBUTION. British Isles. Resident. Generally distributed 

 except in higher mountains and treeless districts, and only thinly 

 distributed in north-west Scotland, breeds in most I. Hebrides, 

 but rare vagrant in 0. Hebrides except Stornoway (Lewis), where 

 bred 1906 and possibly since 1902 ; rare Orkneys, but has bred ; 

 scarce passage -migrant Fair Isle, and rare vagrant Shetlands. 

 First seen in Ireland about 1800 ; has been spreading ever 

 since. 



MIGRATIONS. British Isles. Many of our breeding-birds and 

 their young move southwards from late August onwards, some 

 apparently wintering in southern counties, while others cross to 

 Ireland and others cross overseas from early Oct . onwards . Passage- 

 migrants and winter-visitors arrive in northern isles and on east 

 coast and pass down latter and west coast (Argyll to Cornwall) 

 mid-Sept, to fourth week Nov. ; some perhaps pass to Ireland, 

 others remain as winter-visitors, while others leave by south 

 coast, mid-Oct. to end Nov. Winter weather-movements recorded 

 south, east and west coasts England and Wales in most years up 

 to mid-Feb. From mid-Feb. to early April return immigration 

 on south coast, with passage -movements in reverse direction by 

 same routes as in autumn (but little evidence as yet from east 

 coast) up to May 12 in northern isles, but hitherto not recorded 

 elsewhere after first week April. 



DISTRIBUTION. Abroad. North and central and mountains of 

 south Europe, east to Ural and west Siberia. Winters in Mediter- 

 ranean countries. Replaced in north-west Africa and central Asia 

 and perhaps western Russia and west Mediterranean isles, by allied 

 forms. 



