THE TRUE THRUSHES. 
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visits the eastern coasts. Its time of arrival varies, according 
to the severity of the winters in its European home, which 
force it to migrate, but it sometimes comes as early as the 
middle of September, though flocks are also seen to land as. 
late as the end of November. It has been known to stay 
as late as May and even early June, according to Mr. Howard 
Saunders, but all statements of its breeding in the British 
Islands have so far been found untrustworthy, and the nests of 
the “ Fieldfare ” which have been sent to us from Ross-shire 
and other parts of Scotland have always turned out to be those 
of the Mistle-Thrush. 
Range outside the British Islands. — A northern bird in Europe 
and Siberia, its breeding range extending east to tio° E. long. 
Its breeding range does not reach quite so far north as that of 
the Redwing, extending to the Arctic Circle, up to the limit of 
forest growth or a little beyond it, and Mr. Seebohm met with it 
in the Petchora up to 68 u N. lat., and in the Yencsei up to 70J 0 . 
It also breeds in Central Russia, the Baltic Provinces, Eastern 
Prussia, and Poland, and colonies are being formed in several 
places in Germany. In winter it migrates south, visiting North 
and North-eastern Africa and to the eastward T urkestan, while it 
is also said to occur in the Western Himalayas and Cashmere; the 
only Indian specimen known in collections, however, is one in 
the British Museum, procured by Dr. Jameson near Saharanpur. 
Hahits. — This is one of the most beautiful Thrushes in the 
world, and nothing can be finer than to see a flock of newly- 
arrived Fieldfares settling on a tree, after landing on our 
eastern coasts. Not only the size of the birds, but their rich 
contrast of colour, white breasts, and above all the way in 
which they hold themselves, with their ample white axillaries 
always more or less in evidence— all these features tend to 
make the Fieldfares a remarkable object, as they sit on the 
leafless boughs and are outlined against the sky. These 
Thrushes are always gregarious, arriving in bands, feeding 
together throughout the winter, and nesting in companies on 
their return to their northern home. I hey are always shy 
during their stay in England, and are the less easily observed of 
all the Thrushes, though they become tamer in severe weather, 
and then visit parks and gardens, even in the middle of the 
