414 
REDWING. 
only it would sometimes stop in the middle, and say chippu, a 
name by which it was g-enerally called, and which it would repeat 
every time I entered the room where it was, either by night or day. 
In winter it would generally begin singing in the evening, as soon as 
the candle was lighted, and would sing as late as eleven o’clock at 
night. In spring, when it first arrives in this country, it mounts to 
the top of the loftiest trees, where it will sit and sing for hours, begin- 
ning in the morning by day -break. The earliest of their arrival that I 
ever noticed was the 25th of March ; some years they come the begin- 
ning of April, and sometimes not till the middle of that month. It 
seems to he a very peevish and fretful bird, often shaking its tail, and 
repeating a quick shrill note, as if it was in fear.” 
Bechstein says, it chooses a hole in a wall or a tree whereon to build 
its nest, which is formed of stalks of dog-grass, feathers, and horse-hair, 
carefully put together.* 
REDWING {Turdus Iliacus, Linn^us.) 
Turdus lUacus, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 292, 3. — Gmel. S^^st. 1. p. 808. sp. 3. — Lath. 
Ind. Orn 1. p. 329. 7. — liaii, Syn. p. 64. A. 4 Will. p. 139. — Le Mauvis, 
Buff. Ois. 3. p. 309. — Ih. pi. Enl. 51. — Merle Mauvis, Temm. Man. d’Orn. 1. 
p. 165 Roth Drossel, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 3. p. 360 — Meyer, Tasschenb. 
Deut. 1. p. 196. — Frisch, t. 28. f. 1. and 2 Redwing, Swinepipe, or Wind 
Thrush, Br. Zool. No. 108 Arct. Zool. 2. p. 342. D. — Leivin’s Br. Birds, 2. 
t. 199 Mont. Orn. Diet Lath. Syn. 3. p. 22. 7. — Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 10. 
— Wale. Syn. 2. 1. 199. — BewicFs Br. Birds, 1. p. 102. — Low’s Faun. Oread, p. 
57. — Red-wing Thrush, Shaw’s Zool. 10. p. 183. — Flem. Br. Anim. p. 65. 
This species of thrush is in weight near two ounces and a half; length 
eight inches and a half ; irides dusky ; hill dusky, yellowish at the base 
of the upper mandible ; the whole upper parts are brown, lighter on 
the edges of the quill-feathers and coverts ; over the eye is a whitish 
streak ; breast and sides marked with dusky lines ; body under the 
wings, and under wing coverts, reddish-orange ; the middle of the belly 
white; legs pale brown. 
This bird much resembles the throstle, or common thrush, but is 
rather less ; and in that bird the spots on the breast are more distinct, 
the colour under the wings not so deep, and it wants the white over 
the eye. The Redwing is a migrative species, coming to us in great 
flocks about the latter end of September, frequently in company with 
field-fares. It is found in greatest abundance where the hawthorn 
abounds, on the berries of which it feeds. When the weather is severe, 
or their food becomes scarce, their flight is continued south. 
In the year 1822, during the first severe frost, which lasted 
three weeks,” says Selby, “ large flocks of fieldfares and Redwings 
were collected about the hedges, and on the outskirts of the woods, 
where they lived upon berries of the hawthorn, which fortunately for 
