82 
FIELDFARE. 
they seem to seek and frequent the more moist 
upland pastures, and as the storm sets in with 
severity, gradually seek the lower grounds where 
there is more shelter and moisture. If a storm 
continues for some length, they are reduced to 
sad extremity : many of them, in some years, 
perish with exhaustion and for want, and their 
incapability to exist during a continuance of frost 
and snow plainly shews the necessity and wisdom 
of their migration, for they never seem to attain 
the domestic habits of the common thrush or 
blackbird, which, when driven by distress, will 
seek relief with the poultry and the refuse of the 
farm-yard. In some severe winters we have 
repeatedly taken this commonly wild bird with 
the hand in a state of complete exhaustion.* 
When the ground has been for some time frozen 
up, we perceive a sure indication of the distress 
of the Fieldfare, by small parties of from a pair 
to five or six, frequenting the open springs 
and, shallow ditches, remaining by the river’s 
side, and endeavouring to find about the moist 
edges a precarious subsistence. This forenoon, 
(29th January, 1888,) after fourteen days of 
intense frost, we see them sitting associated with 
the snipe, and when alarmed, instead of the alert 
rising flight, and loud chatter of prosperity, they 
* Colonel Montague mentions the effects on this bird and 
the redwing during the snow-storm of 1798 : — “ They 
became too weak to shift their quarters to a more southern 
climate, and thousands were picked up starved to death.” 
Orn. Diet. 
