THE FIELDFARE. 22L» 



The Fieldfare's haunts m Britain are varied ones. A thorough wanderer, 

 it is seen almost everywhere; either passing over on its journeyings from 

 place to place, or stationary as long as its food is to be obtained. It 

 prefers the isolated woods and pastures to shrubberies, although in severe 

 weather it is often seen amongst evergreens, in company with the Redwing. 

 These birds also frequent the well-cultivated districts, seeking their food 

 on the tall hedges ; and occasionally a few stragglers come quite close 

 to the houses to feed on the hawthorns in the gardens. As long as the 

 weather keeps open, the Fieldfares seem to shun man's presence almost 

 entirely ; but the first severe fall of snow, the first sharp frost, brings them 

 " in " in great numbers. 



The first visit to the breeding-place of the Fieldfare is an event in the 

 life of an ornithologist never to be forgotten. As you drive along the 

 excellent Norwegian roads in the carioles or light gigs of the country, 

 through the pine-forests or by the side of the cultivated land near the 

 villages, there is little in the bird-life to remind you that you are not in 

 one of the mountainous districts of England. As you approach the 

 Dovrefjeld, however, the ground rises, the pines become smaller, and the 

 hill-sides are sprinkled over with birch trees. Now is the time to look out 

 for the Fieldfare. Presently the long watched- for tsak, tsak is heard. You 

 tie your horse to the nearest tree, climb the hill-side whence the sound 

 came, and presently find yourself in a colony of Fieldfares. The birds 

 make a great uproar as you invade their domain, but soon escape beyond 

 gunshot, and their distant tsak, tsak is the only sound you can hear. 

 Your natural impulse is to ascend the first tree where you can see a nest, 

 which is almost sure to be placed in the fork of a birch against the trunk 

 and the first large branch. Close by are sure to be many more nests, 

 some built on the flat horizontal branch of a pine ; and outlying nests 

 belonging to the colony will be found for some distance all round. 



As vou go further north the colonies become smaller ; and as the limit 

 of forest-growth is approached beyond the Arctic circle, the Fieldfare can 

 scarcely be called a gregarious bird. On the tundra, in the absence of 

 birch trees or larches, it breeds on the ground, choosing a niche under the 

 turf on the edge of a clifi', exactly as the Ring-Ouzel so frequently does. 

 In the valley of the Petchora we did not see the Fieldfare north of lat. 68° ; 

 but in the valley of the Yenesay I found a nest in lat. 69°, and saw the 

 birds up to lat. 70^° ; in the former locality it arrived at the Arctic circle 

 on the 17th of May, and in the latter on the 8th of June. 



The Fieldfare arrives on our shores a little later than the Redwing — in 

 the last week of October, or, perhaps more frequently, in the beginning of 

 November. It is, however, a difficult thing to give the exact date of this 

 bird's appearance ; for its wandering mode of life in this country baffles 

 precise observation, and renders a record of the exact date of its arrival 



