Redwings. 301 
neck—appear in Surrey considerably sooner than they 
do farther west. The cuckoo is sometimes a full week 
earlier. It would seem natural to suppose that the 
more forward state of vegetation in that county has 
something to do with the earlier appearance of the 
bird. But I should hesitate to attribute it entirely to 
that cause, for it sometimes happens that birds act in 
direct opposition to what we should consider the most 
eligible course. 
For instance, the redwing is one of our most pro- 
minent winter visitors. Flocks of redwings and field- 
fares are commonly seen during the end of the season. 
‘They come as winter approaches, they leave as it begins 
to grow warm. In every sense they are birds of pas- 
sage: any ploughboy will tell you so. (By-the-by, 
the ploughboys call the fieldfares ‘velts.’ Is not ‘ velt’ 
a Northern word for field ?) But one spring—it was 
rapidly verging on summer—lI was struck day after 
day by hearing a loud, sweet but unfamiliar note in 
a certain field. Fancying that most bird notes were 
known to me, this new song naturally arrested my 
attention. Ina little while I succeeded in tracing it 
to an oak tree. I got under the oak tree, and there 
on a bough was a redwing singing with all his might. 
It should be remarked that neither redwing nor field- 
fare sings during the winter ; they of course have their 
‘call’ and cry of alarm, but by no stretch of courtesy 
could it be called a song. But this redwing was sing- 
ing—sweet and very loud, far louder than the old 
