208 MERULIDA. 
observed that the Redwings are unable to bear hard weather 
so well as the Fieldfares. While in this country, the Red- 
wings inhabit parks and pleasure-grounds that are orna- 
mented with clumps of trees; and, like the Thrush, which 
they most resemble in external appearance, they seek their 
subsistence in mild and open weather in pasture lands and 
moist meadows, feeding principally on worms, snails, and 
other soft-bodied animals. They are much less inclined to 
feed on berries than most of the other species of this genus ; 
and should the resources usually obtained by their search 
on the ground be closed against them by long-continued 
frost and snow, the Redwings are the first among birds to 
suffer, and during some severe seasons, such as 1799, 1814, 
and 1822, hundreds have been found almost starved, alike 
unable to prosecute their journey further south to more con- 
genial countries, or to bear the rigour of this. 
It is worthy of notice, as an instance in the economy of 
nature, that many birds feed without hesitation or prejudice 
on berries that are said to be injurious to man. 
After the winter is over, during which the Redwings 
frequently visit for a time the most southern parts of 
Hurope, namely Sicily and Malta, and were seen by Mr. 
Strickland at Smyrna, they return in flocks to the more 
central portions, where they remain till the gradual advance 
of the season induces them to continue their journey north- 
ward. Mr. Blyth has seen and heard them in Surrey, Mr. 
Doubleday in Essex, and Mr. Williamson in Yorkshire, as 
late as the month of May ; and White of Selborne remarks, 
that one very cold and backward season they lmgered in 
Hampshire till June. An instance is recorded of the nest 
of this bird being taken near Barnet in Middlesex ; another 
has occurred near Godalmin in Surrey. A few Redwings 
have been observed to remain all the summer in Aberdeen- 
