BRITISH BIRDS, 129 



places, eat the same food, and are very similar to 

 them, in manners. Like the Fieldfare, they leave 

 us in the spring, for which reason their song is 

 almost unknown to us, but it is said to be very 

 pleasing. In Sweden they perch on high trees in 

 the forests, and have a fine note in the breeding 

 season. The female builds her nest in low bushes 

 or hedges, and lays six eggs, of a greenish blue 

 colour, spotted with black.* 



* This atrd the former are delicate eating: the Romans held them 

 in such estimation that they kept thousands of them together in 

 aviaries, and fed them ^with a sort of paste made of bruised figs 

 and flour, and various other kinds of food, to improve the delicacy 

 and flavour of their flesh : these aviaries were so contrived as to 

 admit light barely sufficient to direct them to their food; every object 

 which might tend to remind them of their former liberty was care- 

 fully kept out of sight, such as the fields, the woods, the birds, or 

 whatever might disturb the repose necessary to their improvement. 

 Under this management these birds fattened, to the great profit 

 of their proprietors, who sold them to the Roman epicures for three 

 denarii, or about two shillings sterling each. 



VOL. I.' 



