200 MERULID^E. 



soon delighted by the discovery of several of their nests, 

 and were surprised to find them (so contrary 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 out- 

 side 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 Povrefeld, 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- 

 quents evergreens and thick plantations; but, unlike its 



