80 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



must be evident to every sportsman wlio finds the turnip 

 fields at that season everywhere full of them, rising two 

 or three at a time, from the thick "^^ whites/' and more 

 particularly near the fences, or in snug comers with 

 plenty of cover. These, together with the majority 

 of our native birds, again proceed southwards on 

 the approach of winter, till, in severe weather, a few 

 pairs only remain in the vicinity of our towns, pick- 

 ing up a scanty subsistence in our shrubberies and 

 sheltered gardens, drawing nearer and nearer to our 

 dwellings as the cold increases and the berries begin 

 to fail. Mr. Alfred Newton, in a paper "On the mi- 

 gratory habits of the Song-Thrush" (Ibis, 1860, p. 83), 

 thus writes of them as observed by himself and his 

 brother, in the wide open districts in the south-western 

 parts of the neighbouring county : — " Since the autumn 

 of 1849, my brother Edward and myself have paid much 

 attention to the presence or absence of the so-called 

 ' resident' species of Turdus. The result of our observa- 

 tions is such as to leave on our minds not the slightest 

 doubt of the regular migration of the Song-Thrush, as 

 far as concerns the particular locality whence I write. 

 Year after year we have noticed that, as summer draws 

 to a close, the birds of this species (at that season very 

 abundant) associate more or less in small companies. As 

 autumn advances, their numbers often undergo a very 

 visible increase, untU about the middle of October, when 

 a decided diminution begins to take place. Sometimes 

 large, but more generally small flocks are seen passing 

 at a considerable height overhead, and the frequenters 

 of the brakes and turnip-fields grow ^scarcer. By the 

 end of November, hardly an example ordinarily appears. 



only in flocks of one kind, but teal, woodcocks, fieldfares, thrushes, 

 and small birds to come and light together; for the most part 

 some hawks and birds of prey attending them." 



