island : but then they are always mentioned as rari- 

 ties, and somewhat out of the common course of 

 things; but as to redwings and fieldfares, no sports- 

 man or naturalist has ever yet, that I could hear, 

 pretended to have found the nest or young of those 

 species in any part of these kingdoms. And I the 

 more admire at this instance as extraordinary, since, 

 to all appearance, the same food in summer as well 

 as in winter might support them here which main- 

 tains their congeners, the blackbirds and thrushes, 

 did they choose to stay the summer through. Hence 

 it appears that it is not food alone which determines 

 some species of birds with regard to their stay or de- 

 parture. Fieldfares and redwings disappear sooner 

 or later, according as the warm weather comes on 

 earlier or later, for I well remember, after that 

 dreadful winter, 1739-40, that cold north-east winds 

 continued to blow on through April and Ma}^ and 

 that these kinds of birds (what few remained of 

 them) did not depart as usual, but were seen linger- 

 ing about till the beginning of June. 



The best authority that we can have for the nidi- 

 fication of the birds above-mentioned in any district, 

 is the testimony of faunists that have written pro- 

 fessedly the natural history of particular countries. 

 Now, as to the fieldfare, Linnseus, in his '' Fauna 

 Suecica," says of it, that '' it builds in the largest 

 trees," — '' maximis in arboribus nidificat;" and of the 

 redwing he says, in the same place, that " it builds in 



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