232 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Under the trees the berries lie in all directions, for the birds drop or knock 

 off almost as many as they eat ; and the stones are ever falling as they are 

 dexterously shelled out by the feeding birds above. The Fieldfare's 

 summer food is insects, worms, caterpillars, and grubs, and on its arrival at 

 its breeding-grounds in high latitudes the fruit of the various moorland 

 berries that are preserved by the snows of winter. 



Although the Fieldfare warbles occasionally during its winter sojourn 

 amongst us, still its love-song is only heard amongst the wild scenery of its 

 northern haunts. About the end of April or the first week in May the 

 Fieldfare quits British shores for the north ; and upon its arrival its love- 

 song commences. This bird is not a free singer at all ; and his song is for 

 the most part confined to the pairing-season. It is often commenced when 

 the bird is on the wing a wild desultory warble, which he often supple- 

 ments on his perch by notes reminding one of the peculiar chatter of the 

 Starling. From all parts of the forest the birds are heard to sing ; and 

 their wild carols break the stillness of the daily lessening arctic twilight. 

 By many persons the Fieldfare is thought to be a songless bird ; others 

 speak but poorly of his musical attainments. But the former have evidently 

 missed the season of the bird's melody ; and the others have possibly been 

 too much accustomed to more ambitious songsters to do justice to his simple 

 strains. The Fieldfare's love-song is a pleasant addition to the thousands 

 of songsters that make the Arctic summer so gay and lively. The call or 

 alarm-note of the Fieldfare is a sharp chattering cry a kind of laughing 

 cackle several times repeated, and uttered most frequently during the 

 breeding-season ; and in the winter it is often heard to utter a low guttural 

 warble, usually at roosting-time. 



The Fieldfare builds its nest in the branches of the birch, the alder, 

 or the pine at various elevations from the ground. Sometimes, though 

 rarely, it is placed in outhouses, in situations similar to those which our 

 own Blackbird would choose, or in heaps of rubbish or low bushes only a 

 foot or so from the earth. Nesting-operations usually commence about the 

 third week in May ; and eggs may be obtained from that date up to the 

 first week in July. This bird is very irregular in breeding. You may not 

 unfrequently take young birds and newly laid eggs from the same colony. 

 The nest is very similar to the Blackbird's or the Ring-Ouzel's in construc- 

 tion and materials. The outside is made of coarse dry grass, with some- 

 times a few birch-twigs or a little moss interwoven, then plastered with 

 mud, and finally lined with a thick bed of fine grass. The eggs are 

 from four to six in number, and, in rare instances, as many as seven or as 

 few as three. None of our British Thrushes' eggs vary so widely as do the 

 eggs of the Fieldfare. The average type of egg is bluish green in ground- 

 colour, thickly marbled, speckled, and blotched over the entire surface with 

 rich reddish brown, the spots being the densest on the larger end, in fact 



