birds at Ballochmorrie, in Ayrshire; and when at Dunskey, Wigtonshire, in the middle of October of the following year, I observed large flocks.

This bird remains until a late period in spring. In seven different years, flocks were observed about Belfast, from the middle to the end of April, and continued until the latter period in two years (1834 and 1842), although there had been some weeks of fine summer-like weather previously, which we might imagine would have tempted them to move northwards.

On the evening of the 7th of May, 1836, Mr. W. Sinclaire, when at his residence, the Falls, observed a large flock migrating in a north-east direction, and heard them calling as they passed overhead. They were considered to be on their way from some distant locality, as none had been seen in his neighbourhood for some time before. But when the season was as far advanced in the very late spring of 1837, fieldfares still frequented their winter quarters there, the great body of them remaining longer than ever before known. They likewise remained in the county of Kerry in the spring of 1837, until the end of April, which is later than had been before noticed.* The middle of April is the latest time at which they have been met with in the county of Wexford;† but at Ballinderry, on the borders of Lough Neagh, about a dozen of these birds were seen in a hedge-row, in 1842, so late as the 31st of May; their call was heard, and the blue of the back distinctly seen, so that no mistake could have been made respecting the species. Sir Wm. Jardine remarks, that the "great body remigrate during the month of May." The ordinary arrival of the species in the north of Ireland, and its departure thence, certainly take place at earlier periods than the south (?) of Scotland, as noticed in that author's work.

The Rev. Thomas Knox of Toomavara remarks in a letter to me, with respect to his present neighbourhood, and Killaloe, his former residence, that the fieldfares are not so numerous, and are always later in appearing than the redwings; that if the weather be mild, they retire in the middle of winter for weeks together, but *Rev. T. Knox. + Mr. Poole.

that one or two nights of frost are certain to bring them back again. When they disappear, he thinks they visit the mountains. Such, likewise, are their habits in the north, as in the open weather, they frequent the upland districts, but are driven to the lowlands by frost and snow. Their favourite haunts around Belfast are the fields skirting the base of the mountains, more especially those surrounded by tall white-thorn hedges, which for the sake of shelter have been permitted to grow to maturity in a state of unpruned and wild luxuriance. Although frequently associating with the redwing, the fieldfare may be considered as preferring localities of a wilder nature than those usually resorted to by that bird, and is accordingly, in such places the more common of the two species.

My correspondents in Kerry and Wexford mention the ground as being the ordinary roosting-place of the fieldfare. When returning at a late hour from hunting, I have several times in the short days of winter raised flocks of fieldfares that were roosting near the summit of heath-clad hills considerably distant from their daily haunts, as well as from any hedges or plantations. Mr. R. Ball mentions his having once seen a flock of about five hundred perched for the night on a spruce-fir near Youghal, and that fieldfares and redwings in large flocks—“ a stream of them”. pass over the Zoological Gardens, Dublin, commonly in the winter, to roost in the Phoenix Park. The flight of the fieldfare is well described by Mr. Macgillivray, whose description of its habits generally is very good; as is that also of Sir Wm. Jardine.

I have little doubt, from having at such times remarked their scarcity, that when a severe frost sets gradually in, fieldfares generally leave, as in England, the northern parts of this country. Though the species is naturally wild and difficult of approach, such individuals as remain behind are driven to the bogs, ditches, and drains, in quest of food, and suffer so severely from hunger and cold combined, as to become easy victims to the most juvenile sportsmen. A note, dated Belfast, 1st of December, 1846, is to the effect, that for the last few days a severe frost prevailed,

* See Journal of a Naturalist, p. 259, third ed. for the opposite procedure.

which had been preceded by snow. Two wild-fowl shooters who were out in the bay every morning for a week previous to the commencement of the frost, heard large flocks of these birds flying overhead before daybreak. They all came from a northerly and proceeded in a southerly direction. The frost and snow setting in northwards probably before it reached us may have compelled the birds to migrate to a more genial climate. There was no moonlight at the time.

On the 27th and 28th of January, 1848, when hard frost had for some time prevailed, and the ground was sparingly covered, with snow, an accurate observer, for a long time watched a large flock of from 150 to 200 of these birds, in a field of Swedish turnips at Island hill, near Strangford Lough. Lying behind the fence, hidden by a furze or whin-bush, he was within four yards of the nearest, and saw that the birds generally over the field were engaged pecking eagerly at the roots of the turnip. They were very pugnacious, attacking each other like game-cocks; a couple thus engaged, sometimes springing even two feet into the air; never less than about a dozen pair were thus off the ground at the same time. This singular appearance was the means of attracting from a distance the attention of my informant to the spot. When a couple were fighting, a third often came up and attacked one of them, which was no sooner done, than the previous combatant so relieved betook itself again to turnip-feeding. They never fought long,-" only two or three blows at a time,”but kept up a continual feast and continual battle. On afterwards examining the turnips in the field, he saw, to his surprise, considering their being hard frozen, and the weak bills of the birds, that they had to a great extent been eaten by the fieldfares. As water would lodge where the roots had been pecked, they would, he conceived, be rotted in consequence, to the serious damage of the crop. Five of these birds having been shot and brought to Belfast, I had an opportunity of examining their stomachs; which, even before being opened, all smelled strongly of turnips, and on being cut into, were found to be filled exclusively with that

vegetable. The entire flesh also when dressed, partook strongly of the flavour of the turnip.

As a difference of opinion exists among authors on the subject of the fieldfare's food, I give the contents of the stomachs of seven other individuals examined by me, and which were killed at various times and places during two seasons. Of these, one contained

two limacelli, (internal shells of naked snails belonging to the genus Limax, Linn.) the remains of coleopterous insects, and some vegetable matter; this last substance only appeared in the second; the third was filled with oats alone, though the weather was mild, and had been so for some time before; the fourth contained worms and bits of grass; these last, together with pieces of straw and the husks of grain, were found in the fifth, the weather was severe and frosty for a week previously; the sixth was stored with the husks, and one grain of oats; the seventh, obtained in mild weather, was filled with the stones of haws of the white-thorn. These birds have often been observed by a person of my acquaintance regaling on the haws or fruit of that plant, during frosty weather.

Mr. Hewitson remarks:- "The fieldfare is the most abundant bird in Norway, and is generally diffused over that part of the country which we visited, from Drontheim to the Arctic circle. It builds in society. Two hundred nests or upwards may be found within a small circuit of the forest."* Nothing is said of its song. The fieldfare "only arrives in Provence when the cold is excessive at the beginning of winter. It stays in the wildest places, and departs at the approach of spring. It does not cross the [Mediterranean] sea." †

THE COMMON OR SONG THRUSH.

Turdus musicus, Linn.

Is plentiful, and resident throughout the island. ALTHOUGH I have seen flocks of thrushes late in autumn, I am of

* Egg's Brit. Birds, p. 58.

†M. Duval-Jouve in Zoologist, October, 1845, p. 1118.

opinion (as is Mr. Selby with regard to Northumberland,) that they are not our indigenous birds which so congregate, but that such bodies are on their migration from more northern countries. As confirmative of this view, there does not seem to be any diminution of the species in its accustomed haunts, nor are flocks seen, except for a short time at a particular season.

In England the thrush is considered only as an early songster, beginning its melody at earliest by the end of January (Selby), and continuing it until July (Jenyns). But in Ireland, where our winters are milder, its song, even in the north, is continued in fine weather throughout the year, excepting at the moulting period, and, as if the bird felt the winter day too brief, its melody does not cease when the sun goes down. In December, 1831, I heard it at Wolf-hill, on the 5th, 30 minutes; on the 19th, 40 minutes; and on the 26th, 45 minutes after sunset. Similar memoranda were made in December, 1835, 1837, and 1839, when so many thrushes and robins were sometimes singing at the same time as to produce quite a concert, broken in upon occasionally by the harsh call of the missel thrush.* In summer, too, the notes of the song thrush are sometimes prolonged until a very late hour. On the 27th of May, I once heard them at half past nine o'clock, P.M.; as a friend on one occasion did about midsummer, at a quarter to ten o'clock, P.M. I once, on the 15th of June, listened to its song at Wolf-hill, so early as a quarter past two o'clock, A.M., at which hour on the 16th of that month in another year, it was heard at the Falls: followed a few minutes afterwards, by the note of the cuckoo, and the song of the swallow. When travelling in the month of June over a very wild mountain tract covered with heath, between Cushendall and Ballycastle, (co. Antrim,) and some miles distant from any trees, I heard two thrushes singing: the nearer one, which I saw and listened to for some time, was perched on a dead ragweed (Senecio Jacobaæa) that overtopped the heath. The next day one appeared at a still wilder

* Mr. Poole, writing of the county of Wexford, remarks on his having heard thrushes, sky-larks, and hedge-sparrows sing during a very hard frost.