Birds. 2047 



give me much hope of obtaining any rare eggs. One of the few nests 

 which I was fortunate enough to find with eggs was that of the field- 

 fare : it was within three or four days of my landing in the country, 

 and I was wandering with my gun on a small island, in the midst of 

 a roaring torrent, and admiring the activity of some little wild ducks 

 just hatched, which were swimming merrily about with their anxious 

 mother, who did not seem to approve of my inquisitiveness ; when the 

 loud chattering of some fieldfares attracted me to a clump of trees 

 in the middle of the island. After a very little search, I descried the 

 nest, about twenty-six feet from the ground, in an alder-tree. I soon 

 climbed the tree, and brought down the nest, which contained five 

 eggs. The nest resembled that of a blackbird in every respect (for 

 I pulled it to pieces, and examined its make thoroughly), only it was 

 considerably larger, and much neater made ; it was also extremely 

 thick, and very securely fixed in the fork of a tree. This I found to 

 be invariably the case with these nests, for I examined many others 

 afterwards, though I was never again fortunate enough to find any 

 eggs. Those which I now obtained were veiy difficult to empty of 

 their contents, as the young birds were nearly ready for hatching ; 

 however, by making a large hole on one side of the egg I succeeded 

 pretty well, and they are now safely housed in my cabinet, with no 

 damage from the two thousand miles of shaking they have undergone 

 in a carriole without springs, on some of the worst roads in Europe. 

 The eggs in colour, size and shape very much resemble those of the 

 blackbird. I have been comparing them, by placing them side by 

 side, and I find the ground colour of the fieldfare somewhat greener, 

 and the markings somewhat redder, the latter amounting rather to 

 blotches and spots than specks and streaks ; the shape of the field- 

 fare's egg too is a trifle rounder than that of the blackbird, in this re- 

 spect more nearly resembling that of the song thrush. Comparing it 

 with my own specimens, the figure in Mr. Hewitson's admirable work 

 is much too red, the ground colour being not sufficiently apparent, 

 and the spots of red being far too numerous, and of too light a colour: 

 but the eggs of this genus vary so much, that perhaps the figure there 

 given may be as correct a type of the sort as my own : I would re- 

 mark, however, that the specimens of this egg in the Museums of 

 Christiania and Trondhjem are identical in colour with my own, and 

 that they approach far nearer to the figure Mr. Hewitson gives of the 

 egg of the redwing than to that of the fieldfare. I climbed many other 

 trees to inspect the nests of the fieldfares, and found many with young 



