02 OUR NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



sound which, in woods where foxes abound, is 

 said to serve as a notice of its presence to that 

 animal, when Reynard will follow it a long 

 distance through the wood. The food of this bird 

 usually consists of snails, slugs, worms, and soft 

 insects. When these cannot be procured, it feeds 

 on the ivy and other berries; but it is probable that 

 many of the redwings perish in winter, not from 

 the cold, but from hunger. AVhen an early gleam 

 of sunshine awakes the insect world before their 

 time, this bird seems truly to liail with delight 

 the season of food and brightness. 



" Flowers peep, trees bud, boughs tremble, rivers run, 

 The redwing saith it is a glorious mom." 



Our bird is much like the common thrush. It 

 chiefly frequents parks and shrubberies, and has 

 been seen and hoard as late as the month of May, 

 in Surrey, Essex, and Yorkshire; while White of 

 Selborne heard it in his neighbourhood as late as 

 June, in a season which had been unusually back- 

 ward and cold. The redwing has been known to 

 make its nest occasionally in Middlesex and Sur- 

 rey. But these were evidently exceptions to the 

 general rule, and the bird usually wings its way 



