NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. l- r >7 



of song in the woods. At Dunipace I only heard three individuals 

 sing, where we usually have a couple of dozen. 



Still reported scarce — remarkably so — up to the end of April, 

 as in* Glen Almond, Perthshire, where usually there are hundreds 

 in spring. Mr. Maloch, of Perth, only saw and heard two in two 

 days. Penmanshiel Wood and Dunglass Wood, in Berwickshire, 

 Mr. Hardy writes me, " are very lone and unpeopled :" during a 

 walk of two miles in the former he only heard one Thrush, and on 

 the 5th May saw r only one in Dunglass. Up to 22nd May the 

 same scarcity was noticed by me at Dunipace. None were heard 

 at another locality mentioned by Mr. Hardy, and only one was 

 found by him along the banks of the river Eye. 



Unusual numbers are reported to have bred, however, in the 

 south of England, probably a large proportion of them being our 

 Scottish birds. 



In Islay, Thrushes appear to have been the only birds affected 

 by the severity of the winter and spring. They disappeared 

 altogether [Mr. Chisholm, Jide F. S. Mitchell]. 



No improvement in their numbers appears to have taken place 

 during the summer, so w 7 e may safely conclude that the greater 

 number remained further south to breed. Their almost total 

 absence from our turnip fields in September is also strong evidence 

 of their scarcity here and further north. 



Thrushes were destroyed by Rooks during the winter [T. H. 

 Gibb, loc. cit.\ 



REDWING. 



Tuedus iliacus, Lin. 



Mr. J. H. Gurney, junr., reports to me that Redwings and 

 Fieldfares were more abundant in Norfolk than he ever saw before. 

 " But," he continues, " I soon began to pick up dead and dying, 

 and very few of those that remained survived." This refers to the 

 early part of December. A boatman with whom I am acquainted, 

 on the Firth of Forth, living near Aberdour, told me he picked up 

 thirty dead Redwings and a few Fieldfares in about ten minutes, 

 lying around his house. In Berwickshire, and indeed very gener- 

 ally, their unusually large numbers in autumn, at the beginning of 

 the storm, w r ere noted, as also the great death amongst them later. 

 Mr. Hardy writes (5th February, 1879) : — " The wings and tails 

 are still scattered about in the open, and in sheltered places where 



