7 JANUARY 1928, Page 16

WHERE ARE THE FIELDFARES ?

Is it possible that successions of mild winters have altered the habits of some of the birds ? One of the more salient memories of winters of a generation ago is the great flocks of fieldfares that fell upon the haws and devoured every available berry, even of so bitter a character as the holly. To-day you meet in the South observant countrymen who do not know what a fieldfare looks like, and would not recognize the distinctive chuckle that used to be the most frequent of winter notes. Of course, fieldfares, and redwing, come south as in other days in bouts of frost ; but surely not in the old numbers or with the old regularity. * * * *