Fieldfares and redwings disappear sooner or later
according as the warm weather comes on earlier or later. For I well
remember, after that dreadful winter of 1739-40, that cold north-
east winds continued to blow on through April and May, and that
these kinds of birds (what few remained of them) did not depart as
usual, but were seen lingering about till the beginning of June.
The best authority that we can have for the nidification of the birds
above-mentioned in any district, is the testimony of faunists that
have written professedly the natural history of particular countries.
Now, as to the fieldfare, Linnaeus, in his Fauna Suecica, says of it
that 'maximis in arboribus nidificat'; and of the redwing he says, in
the same place, that 'nidificat in mediis arbusculis, sive sepibus:
ova sex caeruleo-viridia maculis nigris variis.' Hence we may be
assured that fieldfares and redwings breed in Sweden. Scopoli says,
in his Annus Primus, of the woodcock, that 'nupta ad nos venit
circa aequinoctium vernale'; meaning in Tirol, of which he is a
native.
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