Fieldfare. INSESSORES. MERULA. 161 



Of all our winter visitants, it is the latest in its arrival, sel- 

 dom reaching these shores before the latter part of November, 

 as I have ascertained by a registry of its first appearance for 

 some years past, although by many ornithologists it has been 

 said to appear with or before the Redwing ; but I have inva- 

 riably found the latter preceding the arrival of the Fieldfare 

 by some weeks*. On the Northumbrian coast, it always ar- 

 rives with the wind at north-east or east. As its first appear- 

 ance is so much later than that of its fellows in migration, so 

 also is its departure in the spring ; and I have for many years 

 noticed flocks of these birds remaining- on ovir coast as late as 

 the latter part of May, or the first week of June. During its 

 abode with us, it continues in large flocks, and, as long as 

 the weather remains mild, frequents the meadow and pasture 

 grounds, feeding upon slugs, worms, and the larvae of insects. Food. 



In severe frosts, and when the ground is covered with 

 snow, it resorts to the hedges, and to small plantations, where 

 it subsists upon the berries of the hawthorn, holly, mountain- 

 ash, and some others. It is a bird of shy disposition, and, 

 unless pressed by hunger, and reduced by want, will not al- 

 low of any near approach to it. Highly as the flesh of the 

 Fieldfare was prized by the Romans, I have not found it to 

 exceed in flavour that of the Missletoe Thrush, and the 

 others of its tribe, possessing also a bitterness from which 

 some of them are free. Montagu states that Fieldfares 

 roost upon the ground : this may be the case in a mild sea- 

 son, but I have seen them at other times flock by hundreds 

 at nighfall to fir plantations, where they roosted upon the 

 trees. 



This bird builds in pine or fir trees, in Norway, Sweden, 

 Lapland, and other northern countries, laying from three to 

 five eggs, of a pale bluish-green colour, spotted with reddish- 

 brown. 



* I have frequently found the Missel-Thrushes that assemble in small 

 flocks early in autumn mistaken for Fieldfares ; and thus an earlier arrival 

 in this country assigned to the latter species than it is entitled to. 



VOL. I. L 



