FIELDFARE. 
13 
tlie purpose,—is bent in the form of a triangle, and fastened 
by one corner to the branch of a shrub about four feet from 
the ground ; to each side of the triangle is fixed a horse¬ 
hair noose, which hangs over a mountain-ash berry that is 
stuck in a slit in the centre or horizontal part of the triangle; 
and in a plantation or pleasure-ground, right and left of 
the paths, such traps should be tied, in the way described, 
about three feet apart, and regularly supplied with berries 
every day about noon, when the snared birds are taken out, 
and the horse-hairs properly disposed. We have taken 
from one to three hundred birds of the thrush tribe in 
one morning, in Holland, in this manner. 
The Fieldfare is found southward as far as Syria and Asia 
Minor; it is also very common in autumn in some parts of 
the valleys of the Swiss Alps. It is said to remain the 
whole year in Austria. 
The song of the Fieldfare is stated by Bechstein to be 
only a harsh disagreeable warble, but it is said by others 
to have notes soft and agreeable. We have never heard it 
sing, as we have only had this species caged in the winter. 
The colouring of the Fieldfare is more varied than that 
of the two preceding thrushes ; the head and nape of the 
neck are fine grey, the former spotted with dusky; the 
back, shoulders, and lesser coverts of the wings, chesnut- 
brown ; the larger coverts rust-brown, with a greyish tinge: 
the quill and tail-feathers dusky ; the lower part of the back 
greenish-grey. The chin, sides of the neck, and breast, are 
pale rust-yellow, marked with blackish heart-shaped spots ; 
the flanks are similarly marked, upon a white ground. A 
pale-buff line extends from the forehead over the eye. The 
feathers between the bill and eye are black, and the same 
colour extends beneath the eye and over part of the ear- 
coverts ; a dark line also passes from the corner of the 
lower mandible to behind the ears, in a semicircle. The 
