274 Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



autumn, would seem to be continued further into the winter 

 in this island than elsewhere, a result attributable to the hu- 

 midity and mildness of the climate. Its song may be heard 

 as frequently in fine bright days during the month of October, 

 and in the bird's most elevated haunts in the mountain pas- 

 tures about Belfast, as at any other season. One note may 

 be given on this subject : under the date of November 7, 1835, 

 the following appears in my journal — I never heard more sky- 

 larks singing at any period of the year than in the early part 

 of this day in the high pastures bounded by the heath in the 

 Belfast mountains. The day was very fine and bright ; the 

 ground very wet from continued rain throughout the days and 

 nights of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, early part of the 5th, and oc- 

 casionally since, up to this morning. The skylark is gene- 

 rally noticed by authors as singing merely upon the wing, but 

 it not very unfrequently does so when upon the ground, and 

 an intelligent observer mentions that he has often seen it 

 perched on whins when pouring forth its song. Montagu 

 remarks, that this bird is ce rarely seen on the extended moors 

 at a distance from arable land," and later British authors re- 

 peat the observation. This may be of general application to 

 England, but in Ireland the wild mountain pasture is a fa- 

 vourite abode, and there, as mentioned in the following note, 

 the "most sweet voice" of the skylark may occasionally be 

 heard at a rather late hour mingling with the bleating of the 

 snipe: — June 22, 1840. When at half-past seven o'clock 

 this evening on the highest part of the old road from Belfast 

 to Crumlin (perhaps 850 feet above the sea), larks were bu- 

 sily engaged in singing on every side at the same time that 

 snipes (Scolopaa? Gallinago) were bleating and giving utter- 

 ance to their other calls. The mingling of their notes, which 

 are so very dissimilar, had a singular but very pleasing effect. 

 In hard winters our indigenous larks congregate in large 

 flocks, which remain with us unless the weather become ex- 

 traordinarily severe, when they move more or less southwards : 

 even when the winter is mild in the north of Ireland, these 

 birds, generally in small or moderate flocks, migrate hither 

 from Scotland, and have repeatedly been seen crossing the 

 Channel by my friend Capt. Fayrer, R.N., during the several 

 years that he commanded the government mail-packet which 

 plies between Portpatrick and Donaghadee. Although the 

 autumn of the year 1832 had been very fine and mild, so 

 early as the 1 7th of October I saw a very large flock of larks, 

 which had doubtless migrated to this country. In the winter 

 of 1837-38, larks remained in flocks to a late period — on the 

 24th of March I remarked not less than sixty congregated. 



