Birds. 8947 
pigeon from our dinner table. The thousands of redwings and fieldfares which con- 
gregated in these woods preparatory to their quitting the country, without doubt 
formed the great attraction to the birds of prey ; and often, very often, while lying in 
ambush for their enemies, have I been charmed with the concert of this melodious 
host. I think I shall be within the pale of strict veracity, if I say that I have heard 
hundreds in full song at the same moment. But perhaps some of your readers may 
require more positive evidence that this enchanting concert was the actual production 
of redwings and fieldfares; and on that point also I will endeavour to satisfy them. 
When on the look-out for hawks, we always placed ourselves against the body of some 
large tree surrounded by tall underwood, chiefly hazel and ash, and in these bushes I 
have seen at the same moment many redwings and fieldfares with open bills and 
distended throats, in the full torrent of song; some occasionally within two or three 
yards of my head, as I stood motionless at my post. In such close vicinity their 
plumage was as plainly seen as if I had held them in my hand: there was the clear 
bright stripe over the eye, and the unmistakeable rufous colour on the sides of the 
breast; and, though I blush to own it, to make certainty doubly sure, I have shot 
them in the act of singing. I think this must be sufficient to convince the most 
sceptical, even the author of the last note on the subject. But I must add a word on 
the song itself. Except the nightingale, I do not know a more beautiful songster 
than the redwing: its notes much resemble those of the song thrush, but are fuller, 
_sweeter, and more melodious, many of them in tone approaching those of the black- 
bird. The song of the fieldfare is much less varied, and not so long sustained ; its 
notes are both louder and coarser, but still it ranks high in the feathered choir.— 
A, Matthews ; Gumley, Market Harborough, December 10, 1863. 
Redwing singing in England.—While I and my brother were walking in the fields 
on Saturday, December 12, a beautiful and sunny day, we were surprised to hear from 
some trees near at hand a low, sweet, mellow, and easy-flowing warble, having some- 
what of the character of that of the thrush, but greatly differing from it, and such as 
we had never heard before. On an accurate examination of tbe bird with our pocket 
Dolland, we were perfectly satisfied that it was no other than a redwing (Turdus 
iliacus) ; it was perched on an outer spray, about three-quarters of the way up a good- 
sized oak.— Henry T. Wharton; Willesden Green, December 14, 1863. 
[This note and the preceding are of great interest, but I could wish that all such 
records should be verified by obtaining the bird itself and sending it here for verifica- 
tion. I shall be excused, I am sure, if I remind my readers that in every instance 
when this has been done, the record has proved erroneous.— Edward Newman.] 
Blackbird’s Nest on the Ground.—On the 3rd of May, 1862, a blackbird (Turdus 
merula) selected as a site for its nest a hole in the nearly perpendicular side of a 
ditch, close to.a foot-path at Willesden Green ; it was very carefully concealed, and 
overhung by luxuriant grasses. It afterwards contained four eggs, but before they 
could be hatched the nest was taken. We more than once saw the parent fly away 
from the hole.—Charles B. Whurton; Willesden Green. 
[A similar instance is recorded in my ‘ Birdsnesting,’ p. 10.—Edward Newman.] 
Query on the Robin: some Notes on its Habits—The suppositions put forward 
in the pages of the ‘ Zoologist, to aceount for the scarcity of the robin in Britain, 
seem to me very futile. The popular notion of the young birds killing the old ones 
extends to Ireland; but it seems too absurd, as well as unnatural, and, like most 
other popular legends concerning Natural History, is scarcely worthy of a thought. 
