474 



PERCHING BIRDS. 



Fieldfare. 



bird, suffering severely in protracted frost, even while other birds are able to retain 

 sound condition. The explanation of this must be sought for in the fact that 

 it subsists upon worms and other insects rather than upon berries. The 

 adult is olive-brown above ; a broad line of butty white passes over the eye ; 

 the under-parts are white, streaked with brown ; and the flanks and under wing- 

 coverts are bright rufous. 



The fieldfare (T. pilaris) is the most abundant of all the northern 

 thrushes, alike in the pine-clad valleys and in the regions of birch. It 

 breeds in colonies, and the nests are placed in fir-trees and birches at various eleva- 

 tions, some being as much as fifteen feet from the ground. They are generally 



built of long, dry, fine grass, 

 with a coating of mud or 

 clay between the outer and 

 inner layers of that material. 

 Professor Collett relates that 

 a fieldfare once nested in a 

 milk - pail inside a dairy, 

 and successfully reared its 

 young ; and Mr. Dresser 

 found a nest in a hollow top 

 of a rotten stump, not a foot 

 above the ground. When- 

 ever an intruder approaches 

 their nest, the old birds fly 

 round, uttering loud and 

 harsh cries, and thus attract 

 attention to the whereabouts 

 of their treasure. The eggs 

 of the fieldfare resemble 

 those of the blackbird, being 

 bluish green in ground-colour, speckled and blotched with reddish brown. The 

 young are fairly tame when they first leave the nest, but soon become shy and wary 

 even on their nesting-grounds. It is possible that their shyness or boldness may 

 depend upon the extent to which the birds are molested. Myriads of fieldfares 

 annually cross the German Ocean to winter in the British Isles and Central Europe ; 

 and on one occasion a solitary straggler landed as far west as Iceland. The adult 

 male has the head and hind-neck ashy grey, the feathers of the crown having 

 dark centres ; the back and wing-coverts are rich chestnut-brown ; the wings and 

 tail blackish brown ; the eyebrows whitish ; and the under-parts rich ochre, thickly 

 spotted with black. 



m . „, ,' ., The birds of the genus Merula are true thrushes in all 



The Blackbirds. te 



structural characters, and differ from the foregoing chiefly in the 

 important particular that the plumage of the adult male is more or less widely 

 distinct from that of the female. In a number of species the male bird is black 

 or slaty grey. No fewer than sixteen of the species referred to this genus are 

 peculiar to South America ; while twelve inhabit Australia, and fourteen are found 



THE FIELDFARE. 



