32 THE BIRDS OF OUR RAMBLES. 



British species) is a great favourite of mine ; for 

 its ways are so trustful and gentle, and it comes 

 so regularly to a chosen haunt, remaining there 

 the entire winter through, that the acquaintance 

 ripens into friendship. On the other hand the 

 AH FIELDFARE (T. pilaris) is a more restless species, 



and spends his winter in wandering up and down 

 the country-side like a nomad, with no fixed 

 dwelling-place. His slate-gray head, nape, and 

 rump, dark wings and tail, streaked throat and 

 breast, and dark flanks, all readily distinguish him 

 from the other Thrushes. He is about the size 

 of the Blackbird ; and his white axillaries are very 

 conspicuous during flight. Both the Redwing 

 and the Fieldfare are winter visitors to our 

 islands, coming from the forests of Scandinavia 

 in the late autumn days, their advent with us 

 being a sure sign of the waning year. I always 

 welcome the coming of these birds, especially the 

 Redwings, for they take the places in park and 

 shrubbery vacated by the summer birds of 

 passage, already far across the southern seas. 

 Both Redwings and Fieldfares migrate by night, 

 and both are songless during their sojourn with 

 us ; although the yelping cries of the Redwings, 

 especially at dusk, and the sak-sak of the Field- 

 fares, are welcome sounds in the leafless trees or 

 gloomy evergreens. The Redwing is the more 

 gregarious, and during the entire winter lives in 

 flocks, which have a settled rendezvous and roost- 

 ing-place in the shrubbery. Both these birds feed 

 on the various winter berries ; but of the two the 

 Redwing does so the least, and generally when 

 animal food is difficult to obtain, owing to a long- 

 continued frost. The Redwing arrives here in 



