MK. J. If. t:UKXKY, JUN., ON TIIK THKUbH TlilliK IN ENOLANI). GL'3 
iiml leaving the British Isles in April. Their numbers vary, ami 
a superabundance of hips and haws is no indication whatever that 
Bedwings will be plentiful. Should the ground be rendered hard 
by frost, great numbers die, while others maintain a lingering 
existence in the vicinity of the sea where there is les.s fro.st. It is 
astonishing with what expedition they clear off the few remaining 
berries ; thrc(i or four will stick to a holly bush until every berry is 
gone. At these times many of them become nothing but bags of 
bones weighing 1 ^ oz. or even less. 
Mr. Scebolnn thinks that at ordinary times it is not a great berry 
feeder, but Mr. Smith di.ssents,i and several observers have noticed 
the Bedwing’s fondness in autumn for the Mountain Ash, a very 
tempting food to a great many species of birds on their arrival from 
the Continent. iMany will corroborate Mr. J. Sclater when he .«ays 
they waste their berric.‘<, for he is ipiite correct in remarking that 
they throw nearly as many to the grouml as they eat,'** where they 
speedily become too hard to be any longer eatable, at all events by 
the Thrush tribe. Mr. Cordeaux-' and I)r. BulC have proved that 
the Bedwing will break snail-shells on a stone like the Thrush, using 
it as a “ chopping-block ” against which to hammer them ; but this is 
not a common habit, and does not seem to have fallen under thenotice 
of many persons. Whether the Bedwing ever nests in Britain or not 
has been hotly debated, as have two other points in its economy, viz., 
whether it comes before the Fieldfare or after, and whether it sings 
in this country. The (luestion of singing is now (piite settled 
in the alHnnative,'’ and it seems impossible that none of the cases 
recorded of its nesting, which arc very numerous, should be authentic. 
Four or five different people are said to have found the nest in 
Yorkshire,'’ and one was actually killed in Kent sitting on four 
eggs in a holly bush.' I was told, on what seemed good authority, 
that it had bred at Castle-Eden dene in Durham, and it is also 
said to have nested in Tipperary, Korth Wales, Perthshire, Leices- 
tershire, Surrey, Hertfordshire, The Hebrides,® and Middlesex.^ 
* ‘ Birds of Somerset,' p. (30. - ‘ Z<iologist,’ 1870, p. 1818. 
■' ‘ Zoologist,’ 1805, p. t'531. * ‘ Binls of Hereford,’ p. 5. 
‘ Zoologist,’ 1880, p. :182. 
** * Zoologist,’ 1815, p. 1080 j lS/3, p. 3111 j l8/0, p. lOO \ 188o, p. ISo. 
' ‘ Zoologist,’ 1880, p. 309. 
" Fleming, ‘ British Animals,’ p. 05: ‘Field,’ April 28th, 1888 
'J ‘ Magiizine of Natural History,’ 1S37, p. 440. 
