Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/152

 142 F I E F I E FIELDFARE, Anglo-Saxon Fealo-for ( = Fallow-farer), a large species of Thrush, the Turdus pilaris of Linnaeus well known as a regular and common autumnal visitor throughout the British Islands and a great part of Europe, besides Western Asia, aud even reaching Northern Africa. It is the Veldjakker and Veld-lyster of the Dutch, the Wachholderdrossel and Kramtsvogel of Germans, the Litorne of the French, and the Cesena of Italians. This bird is of all Thrushes the most gregarious in habit, not only migrating in large bands and keeping in flocks during the winter, but even commonly breeding in society 200 nests or more having been seen within a very small space. The birch-forests of Norway, Sweden, and Russia are its chief resorts in summer, but it is known also to breed sparingly in some districts of Germany. Though its nest has been many times reported to have been found in Scotland, there is perhaps no record of such an incident that is not open to doubt ; and unquestionably the Mistletoe-Thrush (T. viscivorus) has been often mistaken for the Fieldfare by indifferent observers. The head, neck, upper part of the back, and the rump are grey ; the wings, wing-coverts, and middle of the back are rich hazel-brown ; the throat is ochraceous, and the breast reddish-brown both being streaked or spotted with black, while the belly and lower wing-coverts are white, and the legs and toes very dark brown. The nest and eggs resemble those of the Blackbird (T. merula), but the former is usually built high up in a tree, The Fieldfare s call-note is harsh and loud, sounding like t chat-t chat : its song is low, twittering, and poor. It usually arrives in Britain about the middle or end of Octo ber, but sometimes earlier, and often remains till the middle of May before departing for its northern breeding-places. In hard weather it throngs to the berry-bearing bushes which then afford it sustenance, but in open winters the flocks spread over the fields in search of animal food worms, slugs, and the larvse of insects. In very severe seasons it will altogether leave the country, and then return for a shorter or longer time as spring approaches. From the author of William of Palcrne to the writers of our own clay the Fieldfare has occasionally been noticed by British poets with varying propriety. Thus Chaucer s association of its name with frost is as happy as true, while Scott was more than unlucky in his well-known reference to its &quot; lowly nest &quot; in the Highlands. Structurally very like the Fieldfare, but differing greatly in many other respects, is the bird known in North America as the &quot; Robin&quot; its ruddy breast and familiar habits reminding the early British settlers in the New World of the household favourite of their former homes. This bird, the Turdus migrator ius of Linnaous, has a wide geographi cal range, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Greenland to Guatemala, and, except at its extreme limits, is almost everywhere a very abundant species. 1 As its scientific name imports, it is essentially a migrant, and gathers in flocks to pass the winter in the south, though, a few remain in New England throughout the year. Yet its social instincts point rather in the direction of man than of its own kind, and it is not known to breed in companies, while it affects the homesteads, villages, and even the parks and gardens of the large cities, where its fine song, its at tractive plumage, and its great services as a destroyer of noxious insects, combine to make it justly popular. (A. N.) FIELDING, ANTHONY VANDYKE COPLEY (1787-1855), commonly called Copley Fielding, an English landscape- painter, became at an early age a pupil of John Varley. He took to the water-colour method of art, and to this he confined himself almost exclusively. In 1810 he became J It is recorded as having occurred a few times in Europe and once even in England (Zool., 1877, p. 14); but whether in any case it has been a voluntary visitor may be regarded as doubtful. an associate exhibitor in the Water-colour Society, in 1813 a full member, and in 1831 president of that body. He also engaged largely in teaching the art. His death took place at Worthing in March 1855. Fielding was a painter of much elegance, taste, and accomplishment, without reaching very high in originality of purpose or of style : he painted all sorts of views, including marine subjects in large proportion. Five specimens of his work are to be seen in the water-colour gallery of the South Kensington Museum, of dates ranging from 1829 to 1850. Among the engraved specimens of his art is the Annw.il of British Landscajx ticenery, published in 1839. FIELDING, HENEY (1707-1754). The pedigree of Fielding the novelist will always be remembered by an eloquent passage in one of Gibbon s essays. &quot; Our im mortal Fielding was of the younger branch of the earls of Denbigh, who drew their origin from the counts of Haps- burg, the lineal descendants of Eltrico, in the 7th century duke of Alsace. Far different have been the fortunes of the English and German divisions of the family of Haps- burg : the former, the knights and sheriffs of Leicestershire, have slowly risen to the dignity of a peerage ; the latter, the emperors of Germany and kings of Spain, have threatened the liberties of the Old, and invaded the treasures of the New World. The successors of Charles V. may disduin their brethren in England ; but the romance of Tom Jones that exquisite picture of humour and manners will outlive the palace of the Escurial and the imperial eagle of Austria.&quot; Henry Fielding was born at Sharpham Park, near Glas- tonbury, Somersetshire, on the 22d of April 1707. There was nothing in the circumstances of his birth to foreshow that the descendant of such illustrious ancestors would drift as rapidly as he did into Bohemia. His father, the youngest son of the earl of Desmond, and grandson of the first earl of Denbigh, is said to have distinguished himself as an officer under Maiiborough, though the details of his career are not known. Shortly after the battle of Ramillies, he appears settled in England as a country squire, having married the daughter of Sir Henry Gould, a judge of the King s Bench. As Captain Fielding s family grew, and his love of profuse hospitality manifested itself, and when, on the death of his first wife, he married a second time, and this marriage also proved fertile, it became apparent that his eldest son, the future novelist, would have little patri mony but his wits. His book education had been conducted so far in the ordinary way ; he had been taught at home by the family chaplain (said to be the original of Parson Trulliber), and in due course was sent to Eton. But lie did not proceed to Oxford with his schoolfellows Lyttelton and Pitt, but, probably from the growing needs for economy at home, was despatched to the university of Leyden. As we know only the barest leading facts about that in teresting seminal period, the first twenty years, of Fielding s life, we can hardly venture even a guess at the circumstances which had given such early encouragement to the bent of his genius that he returned from Leyden after two years residence there, bringing with him as the chief fruit of his studies a first sketch of a comedy called Don Quixote in England. The most significant incident in the records of his early life is his friendship with the studious, ambitious, precocious Lyttelton, a friendship which cannot have been without a powerful influence on an impressionable boy, whose high animal spirits aud keen relish for existence did not predispose him to study. In after years the novelist made a point of displaying, with a certain degree of osten tation, the solid learning which he then acquired, and with all his rollicking dash and recklessness devoted himself to severe intellectual labour with a zeal which we never find in those who have spent an idle youth. There is no genius