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life in the snow is an interesting study. If you stroll out into the woods on a wintry morning, before 
the first freshness of the snow-storm has passed away, a dreamy quietness seems to be everywhere; 
animals that betrayed their presence amongst the autumn leaves when the ground was bare, now 
steal silently away, and every thing seems changed by the sudden transformation of a might. Тһе 
broad-leafed laurels and the dense yews and hollies bend under their heavy pall of dazzling 
whiteness. Here and there on the trunks of the forest-trees the snow has lodged in the rifts of the 
bark, and each branch and twig of the hedgerows is clothed in a fair frost-work of silver filagree, 
whilst overhead the network of branches comes indistinctly out against the leaden sky above, 
Animals are now betrayed by their tracks upon the snow. Here a hare has crossed, and, doubling, 
has passed over the turnips, and found her “seat” in some warm hedgerow. There a weasel has 
come from the stone-heap, and, in irregular march, has entered the shrubbery. Тһе Blackbird has 
hopped out onto the snowy lawn, in vain search for a scanty sustenance; and on an old stump a 
Robin has perched to warble his morning song. The ‘spoor’ of each is now made plain—the tell- 
tale snow reveals them all. But if you want to see the Fieldfares you must not look for them on the 
ground, but in the hawthorn trees. Long before you approach them they probably take wing in a 
straggling train, scattermg the snow in showers from the twigs, and their harsh notes of tsak, tsik, 
tsak ving clearly out on the bracing frosty air. From tree to tree they fly before you, always keeping 
out of gunshot, or, if thoroughly alarmed, mounting into the air, and, in a widely scattered flock, 
taking themselves off to a distance, their dark forms appearing large against the sky as they quickly 
pass away. The flight of the Fieldfare is not particularly rapid, but is straight forward, and with 
but little undulation, and is performed by a series of quick flapping movements. Sometimes the 
birds will go through a number of graceful evolutions in the air before alighting on a favourite 
pasture. When alarmed, they fly to the nearest tree-tops, where they sometimes join in a melodious 
concert, like Redwings, although just as frequently they will fly straight away. But the Fieldfare is 
far the oftenest seen in the branches. Like the Mistle-Thrush, with whom they often associate, they 
haunt the berry-bearing trees and shrubs; and as soon as the stock of food is exhausted in one 
locality they commence their nomad life again, and are off in search of more suitable pastures. At 
nightfall the Fieldfare is found in the shrubberies and near the evergreen trees and bushes, where it 
retires to roost. Like the Redwing and the Blackbird, the Fieldfare becomes vociferous at the 
approach of dusk, and its peculiar chattering cry and low guttural call-notes are heard well into 
twilight. It has been said that the Fieldfare roosts upon the ground ; but this is undoubtedly from 
necessity, not from choice; for the bird, though, like all other Thrushes, for the most part a ground 
feeder, has none of the characteristics of ground-birds, as the Larks and Pipits, and where evergreens 
are at hand it always avails itself of their shelter. Instances are alleged of these birds having been 
flushed from the stubbles or the pastures at dusk; but this is the Fieldfare's feeding-hour; and if 
shrubberies be near at hand, it is there they spend the night. 
“The Fieldfare is less exclusively insectivorous than the Redwing. In winter these birds are 
sometimes found upon the stubbles and wilder pastures (places the Lark loves to frequent), where 
they consume the scattered grain, and pick out the seeds of the various grasses. But they also 
search at times the marshy meadows and pasture-lands for snails, worms, and beetles; and if the 
frost lasts long and vegetable food is hard to find, they will haunt the banks of the running streams 
for the sake of the scanty insect-fare they afford. In winter the Fieldfare seems most at home 
amongst the branches of berry-bearing trees and shrubs. He is then a thorough berry feeder, and 
all the winter fruits form his fare. Не is often seen in the mountain-ash, or in amongsf the dense 
thickets of wild rose and bramble, where the *hips' grow the thickest; but the food he loves best 
appears to be the berries of the hawthorn. It is a pleasing sight to see a flock of Fieldfares, when 
the ground lies inches deep in snow, in the dense branches of these trees, obtaining the berries 
