November 



the build and flight of the missel-thrush, but may 

 also be promptly distinguished from the home bird 

 by the pronounced grey of the lower part of the 

 back in Cheshire they are called " bluebacks " 

 contrasting strongly with the dark wings and tail ; 

 and by the white underparts, which flash frequently 

 into view during the bird's wheeling flight. 



When feeding on the ground, fieldfares face all 

 the same way, now one, now another, flying forward 

 to secure the first place in the advance. They fly 

 high like missel-thrushes, and, like them, lay back 

 the wings after each series of four or five strokes. 

 Their most characteristic evolution in flight is the 

 broad wheeling movements which they use before 

 settling on the ground, or upon some high tree. In 

 the latter situation, it may be seen that the birds are 

 still all facing in the same direction. Their note, 

 generally emitted on the wing, may be written as 

 " Yuch-uch-uchut ! " and has in its character a certain 

 consonancy with the chattering of magpies, though 

 less loud and sustained, and I have known magpies 

 to respond to it as a band of fieldfares flew past the 

 tree upon which they were perching. The note is, 

 however, of a more subdued, conversational type, 

 and as the irregular group rustles by overhead, the 

 birds chatting familiarly together, the sound recalls 

 the still gentler garrulity of an autumn band of 

 linnets. 



It is a fact worthy of note that the fieldfare, 

 which in its breeding haunts in Scandinavia builds 



