8 FIELDFARE. 
near Halle on the Saale. Its line of migration is more easterly 
than that of the Redwing, the Fieldfare being rare in Spain and in 
the Canaries, but it winters in North Africa, and in Western Asia 
to Northern India. 
In Northern Europe Fieldfares often breed in colonies—and in 
such assemblages the late Mr. A. C. Chapman and others have 
found old nests with eggs of the Merlin. Especially in birch, 
but also in fir woods, gardens and orchards the nest is in a fork 
between the trunk and a large branch; further north, where the 
birds become less gregarious, heaps of firewood, fences, shepherds’ 
huts, &c., are utilized ; while on the treeless éundras of Siberia the 
nest is placed on the ground, on the edge of a rock or a bank. In 
Poland breeding commences in April, but northward hardly before 
the middle of May. The 4-6, and even 7, eggs resemble very hand- 
some Blackbird’s, but they vary greatly, some being boldly blotched 
with reddish-brown like Ring-Ouzel’s, while others have a light blue 
ground colour: dimensions 1°2 by ‘85 in. Two broods are gene- 
rally produced in the season. The old birds are very noisy when 
the breeding-place is approached, uttering their harsh cries of /sak, 
tsak ; the call-note or love song, uttered by the male when on the 
wing, is a softer warbling gaz, guz. The food of the young consists 
principally of insects until the wild strawberries and other fruits are 
ripe, and owing to its fondness for the juniper, this species is known 
in Germany as the ‘ Wachholder-drossel’; in fact it is a great eater 
of berries. It generally roosts in trees, and sometimes in reed-beds, 
or on the ground in stubble-fields. 
The young Fieldfare on leaving the nest is spotted on the back 
like the young of other Thrushes, moulting again, as do the parents, 
before migration. The birds arrive in this country with light mar- 
gins to the feathers of the lower parts, but by the following spring 
these edges have disappeared and the spots become more clearly 
defined, leaving the bird in its nuptial dress. The head is then slate- 
grey, streaked with black; mantle chestnut-brown; rump con- 
spicuously grey; wings and tail dark brown; throat and breast golden 
brown streaked with black, the flanks boldly marked with very dark 
brown ; centre of the belly white ; under wing and axillaries pure 
white ; the bill (which was darker in winter) is now yellow ; the legs 
and toes are dark brown. The female is somewhat duller in colour 
than the male. Length to in.; wing 5°5 in. Like many of its 
congeners, this Thrush exhibits a few slender hair-like filaments 
on the nape, and to the accident of these being noticed in this species 
the name gd/aris is probably due. 
