45 



of the breast and flanks have broad fulvous-white edgings, so that the black centres to the feathers do 

 not show so plainly. 



Explanation of the Plates. The first Plate represents the fully grown young bird on the right hand, the 

 centre figure a male in breeding-dress, and to the left hand is the adult male in winter; all these 

 specimens are in our own collection. On the second Plate is illustrated the nestling which Mr. J. A. 

 Harvie Brown lent us, and the young male in its first winter plumage. 



The breeding-haunts of the Fieldfare are principally in Norway, Sweden, and the northern and 

 central parts of Europe generally ; and it nests in certain localities in Poland and Germany, — 

 the southernmost point where it has been found breeding being Bavaria, if we except the rather 

 doubtful assertion that it nests in the Alps. In winter it is a bird of wide distribution, visiting 

 most of the countries of Europe in considerable numbers, excepting Spain, where it is rare ; to 

 the eastward it extends into Central Asia, and has been once procured in N.-W. India. 



Professor Baird, in his paper on the migration of North-American birds (Ibis, 1868, p. 281), 

 mentions the present species as doubtfully occurring in Iceland ; but we do not know who has 

 ever included it among the birds of that country. Professor Newton, whose Appendix to the 

 work of Mr. Baring-Gould's ' Iceland : its Scenes and Sagas,' is our first authority on Icelandic 

 ornithology, does not mention the occurrence of the Fieldfare ; nor, we believe, has any authentic 

 record of its capture been received as yet. At the same time there would be nothing very 

 surprising to hear of the bird turning up in that locality, which is accessible to the Redwing and 

 other birds of migratory fame. 



The exact date of the arrival and departure of the Fieldfare in Great Britain has been a 

 subject of much discussion among ornithologists ; but there can be little doubt that the records 

 of these Thrushes having been noticed in September are always more or less open to question ; 

 and the usual date of the appearance of the present species is about the end of October or the 

 beginning of November. Mr. Stevenson, indeed, in the ' Birds of Norfolk ' (p. 77), mentions the 

 14th of October as a very early occurrence of the Fieldfare in that county, a projpos of which 

 statement Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., in a letter dated " Northrepps, near Cromer, December 26th, 

 1871," writes to us as follows: — "Mr. Stevenson does not give an earlier appearance than 

 October 14th; but in 1869 they were seen here by the keeper on the 2nd of that month; and 

 Mr. Cater states in the ' Zoologist' (p. 2412) that he has seen them on the 10th of September at 

 Waxham, in this county, which is very early." Doubtless the severity of the weather influences 

 the arrival and departure of the Fieldfares. They leave us generally about the end of April 

 or the beginning of May ; and Mr. Howard Saunders tells us that he once shot two specimens 

 out of a flock on the 14th of the last-mentioned month in the immediate vicinity of London. 

 Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear make mention of one having been killed at Cromer, in Norfolk, 

 as late as the first week in June ; and White, of Selborne, records that they had in his experience 

 once remained till June. The Fieldfare has likewise been reported to have bred in England, 

 on apparently good authority. Mr. A. G. More thus writes : — " Tardus pilaris also is recorded 

 by Mr. Blyth to have bred at Merton, in Surrey (Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist. iii. p. 467) ; 

 but unfortunately that gentleman did not see the birds himself." In his ' Tour in Sutherland ' 

 (i. p. 206), Mr. St. John says, " I was shown a nest and eggs from near the Spey." Other 



