9106 Birds. 
induced to approach them quite closely, in order to listen to the furious babel of chat- 
tering which was being rehearsed. Certainly I never on these occasions heard anything 
from them that I should call singing, the noise far more resembling the chattering of 
the starling than anything else I can compare it with—George Norman; Hull, 
May 4, 1864. 
Redwing singing in England.—On the 8th of March, 1864, in the immediate 
neighbourhood of Alton, I shot a redwing in the act of singing. There was a flock of 
redwings in a neighbouring field; the bird in question was, however, alone in a haw- 
thorn-tree. Its song resembled that of the nightingale with a large admixture of the 
notes of the thrush.—C. F. Stewart; Ackender House Academy, Alton, Hants, 
April 9, 1864. 
[Please send the bird for inspection Edward Newman.]} 
Redwing singing in England.—From all that I have heard on both sides of this 
question, I cannot help thinking that the solution of the difficulty depends entirely 
upon the definition of the word “singing.” What constitutes a “song”? The Rev. 
A. Matthews is as positive that he has heard a redwing sing as Mr. Doubleday and 
the other gentlemen named in the editorial note are certain that this bird does not 
sing in England; and yet I have little doubt but that each of them has heard exactly 
the same note, the only difference being that Mr. Matthews calls it a “ song,” and his 
opponents say, “ You cannot call this a song, it is merely a clear and loud prolonged 
twittering, and very different from the real song of the redwing, which the bird only 
gives forth in the breeding season, during the months it is absent from England.” 
I could cite numerous instances in which I have approached very close to redwings, 
and, with a good glass, watched them with open bills and distended throats, uttering 
the peculiar note to which I have alluded, and which, I believe is the same to which 
Mr. Matthews refers. I think it is best expressed by the word “ twittering.” But I 
need not occupy your space further than to say that I have never heard a redwing 
utter avy other sound than this prolonged and really musical twittering, except the 
call-note, which is harsh, and not unlike that of the fieldfare. The conclusion, therefore, 
at which I arrive is this: if it be granted that this peculiar twittering or warbling (call 
it what you will) is worthy to be called a song, and moreover that this is the only song 
which the redwing has, then, assuredly, the redwing dves sing in England. But if, on 
the other hand, it be said, “ We cannot allow that this twittering is a song, and 
besides this, the bird has another and a different note, which is as much a song as that 
of the thrush, but is uttered only in the breeding season,” then we must conclude that 
the redwing does not sing in England—J. Edmund Harting ; Kingsbury, Middlesex, 
May 11, 1864. 
Food and Song of the Redwing.—I should not have said anything more about this 
bird had not the Rev. Mr. Matthews stated that its food is essentially different from 
that of the thrush: as far as my observations go, the food of the two birds, with the 
exception of the snail, is precisely similar; the thrush certainly feeds upon fruit and 
berries as much as the redwing. At the bottom of my garden stand two large red- 
flowered thorns, and in the autumn they are generally covered with haws, of which the 
birds seem particularly fond, preferring them to those of the ordinary white-flowered 
thorns growing close by. The song thrushes invariably come to the two red-flowered 
thorns in the autumn to feed upon the haws, in company with missel thrushes, red- 
wings and blackbirds, and they never leave them till all the haws are gone. Last 
autumn I was standing with a friend in the garden, and we counted more than 
