Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/35

Rh too wary for me, and just as it took wing, it again uttered that well-known laughing cackle, somewhat more briskly this time, which I have noticed is a common habit of the species on the moment of taking flight. I admit that I was "let down," so to say, very courteously in 'The Vertebrate Animals of Leicestershire and Rutland,' but there is no getting away from the fact that my note therein is immediately followed by a reference to the Mistle-Thrush being frequently mistaken by sportsmen for an early arrival of the Fieldfare, so I can draw my own conclusions.

In the second case, I wrote as follows to 'The Field': "On the afternoon of Oct. 3rd I heard, saw, and could have shot (as the one closely pursued the other) two Fieldfares"; and the Editor appended the following note: "Although it would not be exceptionally early for Fieldfares to arrive, the action described points with more probability to the birds in question being Mistle-Thrushes, and the more so because there were only two of them instead of a small flock." This was rebuff number two.

The latest date I recollect seeing Fieldfares staying in this country was on May 12th, 1879. On that morning I walked within gunshot of a cluster of five which were winging their way northwards, and had settled for a few moments on the top of a lofty poplar. With regard to the bird seen on Sept. 2nd, 1878, was it a pioneer of others to follow, or was it one that had been wounded and passed the summer with us? At all events, there seemed nothing wrong with its flight or general appearance when I was gazing at it.

I have found this species roosting in tall thick hedges, but generally on the ground, and frequently in the furrows in the open fields, for I have two or three times walked nearly on to the top of them after 10 p.m. on dark nights; they cannot even then resist a chuckle when thus disturbed. I think, though, the more common roosting-place is on the ground in small woods and plantations, and, after wheeling about for some time in a flock, first alighting on one tall tree and then taking a flight and settling on another, they will finally descend on the point of dusk to the lower trees,—ash-pole spinneys being especially favoured haunts at this hour. After resting for a few moments in the branches, the birds drop silently down in quick succession to the