92 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



may fairly be called a migratory bird, large numbers 

 arriving in our county early in September, and after 

 remaining for a week or more, resuming their journey 

 southwards, taking with them a large proportion of 

 our native Thrushes. My attention was first called 

 to this in my early shooting-days, when I often 

 noticed that the turnip-fields through which we had 

 tramped during the first few days of the season, 

 without disturbing more than a few young Song- 

 Thrushes, would suddenly, a little later, seem to be 

 alive with them for some days, and as suddenly, and 

 without apparent cause, be entirely deserted. Some 

 few of our native Thrushes linger, but generally 

 disappear at the first severe frosts ; and though I 

 have not a regular record, I can well remember more 

 than one winter in which I have not met with more 

 than one or two half-starved Song-Thrushes between 

 the end of October and beginning of February, in the 

 first fine days of which month we generally hear the 

 welcome song of the Mavis. In many parts of 

 Europe the flesh of this species is highly esteemed 

 and fetches a good price ; at Marseilles, especially, I 

 have often found the markets full of this and other 

 species of the Thrush family in the month of 

 November ; a great many are shot and snared in the 

 neighbourhood, but hundreds of thousands are sent 

 from Corsica, whither these birds swarm on their 

 winter migration, to feed on the various berries 

 which abound in the uncultivated parts of that 

 island. I have more than once met with a nest of 

 this bird on the ground, and in one such instance, on 

 disturbing the old bird, found four eggs actually 

 afloat in the nest, which was more than half full of 

 water, I presume from some heavy thunder-showers, 

 to which, in the absence of the Thrush, it was fully 



