51 



n 



of these examples. De Filippi did not obtain it during his journey through Persia; but Messrs. 

 Dickson and Ross procured a single specimen at Erzeroom on the 1st of April. 



Canon Tristram says that in Palestine he only " met with it once or twice, in winter." His 

 collection contains a specimen from the vicinity of Jerusalem. Captain Shelley, in his work 

 the ' Birds of Egypt,' writes : — " The Fieldfare is a winter visitant to Egypt. I saw a specimen 

 at a bird-stuffer's shop at Alexandria, which had been killed in the man's garden that winter 

 (1870); and he told me that it was common there during the winter months." 



The breeding-habits of the Fieldfare are only to be observed in the north and east of Europe ; 

 for in every other part of the continent the bird is scarcely ever known as other than a winter 

 visitant. Mr. Wheelwright, who writes from Quickjock, in Lapland, gives the following account of 

 the bird : — " It was, next to the Brambling, the commonest bird in these forests ; and its hoarse 

 laughing cackle (for I never heard this bird make the faintest attempt at a song) followed us 

 wherever we went in the fir-forest (and I never saw the Fieldfare breeding anywhere else). 

 These birds are, in fact, the greatest nuisance to the collector in these woods. They did not 

 breed here in colonies ; for, although the nests are seldom far apart, we never found two in the 

 same tree. I think no Thrush's egg is subject to so much variation as the egg of the Fieldfare; 

 and it would be almost impossible to describe it better than that it much resembles the egg of 

 the Blackbird, but is usually more highly coloured. We took our first nest on May 25th, and 

 our last on July 7th ; but at this time some of the young were flyers." Von Wright, who, it will 

 be seen, distinctly refers to the song of the bird, thus writes concerning it : — " It is fond of the 

 neighbourhood of cultivated land, birch-woods, or those wherein birch and pine are mixed ; and 

 it sometimes breeds in colonies. Its song is poor, and is uttered by the male when on the wing ; 

 but its harsh cackling note is very loud : the call-note is a softer quiqui. When hopping on the 

 ground it often jerks its tail and wings, but when sitting on trees only moves the former." 



For a further note on the habits of the Fieldfare, we are indebted to Messrs. J. A. Harvie 

 Brown and E. R. Alston, who state as follows : — " The nests of the Fieldfare are placed in all 

 kinds of situations, in birch, alder, pine, and other trees, in outhouses, in heaps of firewood or 

 rubbish, at two or three feet from the ground, or, in the pine-woods, as high as sixty feet. They 

 bear a general resemblance to those of the Blackbird (T. merula), and are composed of long, fine, 

 dry grass, with a coating of mud or clay between the outer and inner layers of grass. This mud 

 seems to be carried by the birds to the nest in the form of small round pellets, several of which we 

 found hi a half-finished structure. A few nests have twigs of birch or other trees amongst the 

 materials of the outer layer, others a few sprays of moss ; but these are generally wanting. The 

 eggs were taken fresh, from the middle of May until the end of June, the first colony found by 

 us being on the 25th of May. Great variety is apparent in the specimens selected for our 

 collections, both as regards size and coloration ; some are not larger than average eggs of the 

 Redwing (T. iliacus), while others are quite as large as those of the Missel-Thrush (T. viscivorus). 

 Five or six seems the usual number ; but in one nest no fewer than seven were found. The birds' 

 behaviour in their breeding-haunts is bold and noisy in the extreme — very different from the shy 

 retiring habits of the Redwing. If a Hawk flies over a colony, all are at once silent ; but if a 

 Hooded Crow (Corvus comix) appears, the noise is redoubled, and the bold birds attack the 

 intruder and drive him off, stooping down at him like little Falcons. One day we came on a 



4d2 



