46 OUR NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



when the bread-corn is ripening. In Dukhun, 

 during the month of December, forty or fifty are 

 said, by Colonel Sykes, to be killed at a shot. 

 At this season tliey are very destructive to the 

 crops, and commit scarcely less ravages than the 

 locusts, which at other times tliey are so usefid in 

 destroying. 



Far more common is another migratory visitant of 

 the thrush tribe — the Fieldfare* {Tardus jfHaris) — 

 which comes to our island with the redwing for the 

 winter, and reaches us just as our other migratory 

 birds are taking their departure. The Rev. W. T. 

 Bree obsen'cs, tliat lie had heard an old sportsman 

 say, that the same wind wliich brought the swallows, 

 took the woodcocks away ; and adds, " I have 

 heard an intelligent countr}^man remark, alluding 

 to the fieldfares and redwings in the spring, that 

 there would be no warm weather till those birds had 

 done chattering." Sometimes the common thriLshes 

 are observed to congi'cgate with the small parties 



* The Fieldfare 13 ten inches in length. The upper parts in 

 general are ash-grey, but the back and wings are umber-bro>vn 

 and the tail is blackish : chin and throat fine yellow ; breast 

 reddish-brown ; belly white ; the throat and breast, and the crown 

 of the head, spotted with black : the beak and feet brown. 



