624 MU. J. II. GUUXEY, JUN., ON THE THRUSH THIIiE IN ENGLAND. 
The nest in North Wales rests on the excellent authority of 
the late Dr. Saxby,^ but a well-known Ornithologist who saw 
tlie eggs thinks they were Blackbird’s. None the less Saxby’s 
authority was first-rate, and in his diary {I.c.) he has left us 
a complete account of what he saw.’^ 
The Fieldfare, Tiirdm pilaris, Linn. 
The Fieldfare arrives in this country from the shores of Norway, 
crossing the sea in scattered flocks, which probably take their 
departure from between Bergen and the Naze : as soon as they 
touch land they begin to scatter over fields, and parks, and pastures 
in search of worms and snails, and when they find a good place 
they stick to it. One of tlie largest arrivals ever seen was on the 
28th of October, in Lincolnshire,^ and another great visitation is 
described by Mr. Cordeaux on November 30th, 1868.^ That they 
should appear on the east coast of England in great quantities, 
is perhaps not so remarkable as that they should frequent the New 
Forest in “ almost incredible numbers,” as Mr. G. B. Corbin says 
is sometimes the case ® when attracted by a good supply of berries. 
But this is when snow and hard weather drive them south, 
1 imagine, and there are no longer many places where they can find 
any food. October is the month in which the Fieldfare usually 
comes, but one was seen in Norfolk by Mr. Purdy as early as 
September 1st, and another in my possession was shot on the 17th 
of September at Boyland. An odd Fieldfare is occasionally left 
behind when the others depart north, and laggards have been shot 
or identified in July in Leicestershire, Kent (2), Middlesex, 
Northamptonshire and Yorkshire, while two have occurred in 
Norfolk in June, and several in Nottinghamshire. 
In Barrington’s ‘ Miscellanies ’ the author states that he had heard 
of a nest near Paddington (p. 219); and Mr. Blyth has recorded 
one near London,*^ about which he more than once expressed 
' ‘Birds of Shetland,’ pp. 64, 386. 
‘ It has probably never nested in Norfolk, though said to have done so 
in a coiumnnication to the ‘ Eastern Daily Press ’ (September 13th and 20th, 
1888), and in some notes of Sir 4Villiam Hooker’s communicated to !Mr. 
Stevenson (‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ vol. i. p. 31). Many years ago my father 
was informed that a pair nested at Attleborough. 
^ Seebohm, ‘ British Bird.s,’ vol. i. p. 230. 
■* ‘ Zoologist,’ 1869, p. 1543. 
* ‘Zoologist,’ 1876, p.4872. 
•’ ‘ Magazine of Natural History,’ 1839, p. 467. 
