MERULID^E. 65 



Yarrell says, in his history of the Redwing, that it 

 does not bear cold so well as the Fieldfare ; but this 

 by no means agrees with my own observation, for 

 I have often found Fieldfares in hard weather quite 

 weak and exhausted by starvation, hardly able to get 

 out of the way, the Redwings at the same time 

 appearing much as usual. A note in the t Zoolo- 

 gist,' by Mr. Cordeaux, dated March 2nd, 1865, 

 quite bears out my own observation: it is as fol- 

 lows : " During the late severe frost and snow 

 I have found Fieldfares starved to death, generally 

 in the vicinity of running water, but so far not a 

 single Redwing. During the frost the Redwings 

 subsisted, I believe, nearly entirely on snails, both 

 the large common snail and the pretty variegated 

 sort: judging from the broken shells, the number 

 of the latter snails destroyed by Redwings must be 

 enormous. In a walk near the Humber the other 

 day I saw several small flocks of Redwings, and 

 every prominent stone was strewn around with 

 broken fragments of snail- shells. I have lately on 

 several occasions seen these birds hammering away 

 against a stone. I do not think the Fieldfares resort 

 to the same diet, and have often watched to ascer- 

 tain if they did so, but without avail; had they 

 been in the habit of feeding upon snails they would 

 probably not have fallen victims to the frost." 



There is another observation of Yarrell's that I 

 do not quite agree with either: he says the Red- 



G 3 



