J.(i."K'eoleraaiislitb.
ITJRBUS PILARIS
Hanharb imp.
TURDUS PILARIS, Linn.
F IE L D F A R E .
La Litorne ou Tourdelle, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 214 (1760).
Turdus pilariß, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 291 (1766); Gould, B. Gt. Br. ii. pi. xxxv. (1864);
Sharpe & Dresser, B. Eur. ii. p. 41, pis. ix., x. (1871) ; Newton, 4th ed. Yarrell’s Brit. B. i.
p. 272 (1872); Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 205 (1881),
La Litorne, Month. Hist. Nat. Ois. iii. p. 801 (1775)
Alauda calandrotte, P. L. S. Müll. Syst. Nat. Suppl. p. 137 (1776).
Fieldfare, Lath. Gen. Syn. ii. pt. 1, p. 24 (1783).
Sylvia pilaris, Savi, Orn. Tosc. i. p. 209 (1827).
Areeuthornis pilaris, Kaup, Natürl. Syst. p. 93 (1829).
Turdus subpilaris, Brehm, Yog. Deutschl. p. 384 (1831).
Turdus juniperorum, Brehm, Yög. Deutschl. p. 385 (1831).
Merula pilaris, Selby, Brit. Om. i. p. 161 (1833); B-idgw. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus, i i i p. 224
(1880).
Turdus fuscilateralis, Brehm, Naumannia, 1855, p. 281.
Planesticus pilaris, Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 530 (1862).
T. gutture, pectore et corporis lateribus conspicue nigro maculatis : caucla nigra: axillaribus conspicue albis.
T he F ieldfare is one of the .finest Thrushes in the world, and is a bird of the Palasarctic Region.
Writing in 1881,' Seebohm gives its range as f o l l o w s “ Breeds in the birch- and pine-forests
of the Palaearctic Region, from the Atlantic to the valley of the Yenesei, occasionally extending its
range northwards beyond the limit of forest-growth, and frequenting also, in large colonies, the'
birch-regions of north temperate Europe. It winters in the British Isles and Southern Europe,
occurring very rarely in the Spanish peninsula, but crossing the Mediterranean to Marocco, Algeria,
Egypt, and Nubia. In Asia it winters in Turkestan, Cashmere, and N.W. India.” During the
sixteen years that have elapsed since the above was written, a considerable increase in our
knowledge of the range of the Fieldfare has taken place, as will be' seen in the summary given
below.
Unlike the Redwing, which nests in Iceland, the present species is only a rare visitor to that
country, and for many years its occurrence there was doubted by Palaearctic ornithologists; but
Mr. H. Benedick Gröndal states that one was obtained alive, though in an exhausted condition, near
Reykjavik, on the 6th of December, 1885. It has not been seen in Spitsbergen, but was noticed
on Jan Mayen by Dr. Fischer. To the Faeroes it is an occasional visitor. In Scandinavia it is
everywhere found, and is said by Nilsson to occur in Sweden in summer from the pine-woods of
Smaland and Blekinge into the Arctic regions, being more common in the north. Sundevall says
that it is the commonest Thrush in Sweden, but does not extend quite to Hammerfest, nor does it
breed so far south as Skäne. In Norway it breeds everywhere, according to Professor Collett, in
the interior of the eastern portion in rather elevated districts and in the birch-region of the fjelds.