526 CLASS AVES. 



generally escape all kinds of snares, and can never be caught 

 with the bird-call. They are sometimes observed to join with 

 the finches in insulting the howlers, which daylight has sur- 

 prised out of their retreat. The missel may be sometimes 

 taken by the noose, but not so frequently as the song-thrush 

 and the redwing. Their flesh is not so much in estimation as 

 that of other thrushes, at least in our more northern climates, 

 which is attributable to the sort of aliment on which they 

 subsist. When they live on grapes, olives, and other succulent 

 fruits, its flavour must be equal to that of the flesh of the 

 others; but hips, flax-seed, and berries in general, which are 

 deficient in nutritive qualities, impart to it a disagreeable taste, 

 and cannot produce the delicate fat which renders the other 

 thrushes so highly esteemed in some places as an article of 

 game. These birds must be taken in the nest, when they are 

 first covered with feathers, if they are meant to be tamed- 

 Crumbs of bread steeped in water, and the yolks of eggs, con- 

 stitute a proper food for them at this season ; when they wiU 

 eat of their own accord they may have worms, snails, berries 

 of various kinds, and minced apples. 



The Fieldfare of Canada ( T. Migratorius) is a well-tem- 

 pered and familiar bird. Its song is more varied and melo- 

 dious than that of the missel, and has equal compass; its 

 throat is more flexible ; it is heard to utter the short inter- 

 rupted cry of our blackbird, which it accompanies with a 

 gnashing of the beak, a vertical motion of the tail, and slight 

 tremor of the wings. It generally places its nest on trees of 

 middling size, and composes it of small roots and dried herbs, 

 bound together with a cement of clay. This nest perfectly 

 resembles that of our song-thrush ; the eggs are four or five 

 in number, of a clear blue, varied with obscure spots. 



The fieldfares come among us from the north of Europe, 

 in November and December. They delight in fallow-lands, 

 in places where flax-seed is found. Towards the end of win- 

 ter they prefer humid meadows, and do not frequent woods. 



