These birds make their appearance a few days before the fieldfare, and are generally seen with them after their arrival; they frequent the same places, eat the same food, and are very similar to them in manner. Like the fieldfare, they leave us in the spring, for which reason their song is quite unknown to us; but it is said to be very pleasing. The female builds her nest in low bushes or hedges, and lays six eggs, of a greenish blue colour, spotted with black.
This and the former are delicate eating: the Romans held them in such estimation that they kept thousands of them together in aviaries, and fed them with a kind of paste, made of bruised figs and flour, and various other kinds of food, to improve the delicacy and flavour of their flesh; these aviaries were so contrived as to admit light barely sufficient to direct them to their food; every object which might tend to remind them of their former liberty was carefully kept out of sight, such as the fields, the woods, the birds, or whatever might disturb the repose necessary for their improvement. Under this management these birds fattened, to the great profit of their proprietors, who sold them to Roman epicures for three denarii, or about two shillings sterling, each.
A redwing was taken up, November 7th, 1785, at six o’clock in the morning, which, on its approach to land, had flown against the light-house at Tynemouth, and was so stunned that it fell to the ground and died soon after; the light most probably had attracted its attention.
When redwings appear on the eastern coast, they as commonly announce the approach of the woodcock, as does the arrival of the wryneck that of the cuckoo, in the south.—Bewick—Daniel.
Reed, s. A hollow knotted stalk, which grows in wet grounds; a small pipe; an arrow.
Reek, s. Smoke, steam, vapour; a pile of corn or hay.
Reel, s. A turning frame upon which yarn is wound into skeins from the spindle; an implement for winding up the angler’s line.
Reeve, s. The female of the ruff.