io THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



It is hardly necessary to remark that there is not a 

 particle of evidence as to the Fieldfare ever having nested 

 in the county ; indeed, all we know on the subject is 

 contained in Allis's statements, quoted above ; so that 

 what Tunstall said of this species one hundred and twenty 

 years ago is true to-day namely, " I have known them 

 in the north as far as the latter end of March, yet 

 never heard them sing, or that they built there " (Tunst. 

 MS. 1784, p. 63). 



As an abundant and widely distributed winter visitant, 

 it arrives in flocks, usually during the latter half of October 

 and in November, and remains until April. The young of 

 the year come first, the old birds in separate flocks, and 

 later in the season. In some years the autumn immigration 

 commences as early as the end of September, as in 1875 

 for instance, and occasionally odd birds are noted early in 

 that month. In 1903 I saw one crossing the Tees Break- 

 water on the 22nd September, while Mr. Boyes has seen one 

 in summer, though this was probably a bird unable to migrate 

 with its fellows in spring. Passages southward in search of 

 retreats from severe cold take place in December, January, 

 and even in February. On 24th January 1880, numbers 

 arrived on the Holderness coast ; nor was this late movement 

 confined to the east coast of Britain, for Herr Gatke informed 

 Mr. Cordeaux that from the 2ist to the 24th of that month 

 quantities crossed Heligoland from the east. Like its con- 

 geners, those which remain with us over severe seasons suffer 

 much, and during the winter of 1879-80 it was very scarce 

 after the Arctic weather of the preceding year, when there 

 occurred a most extensive immigration from more northern 

 latitudes, which I was fortunate enough to witness. It 

 commenced on 9th December, with a snowstorm and N.E. 

 gale of exceptional severity ; a few flocks of Fieldfares passed 

 with Redwings (see p. 6), and increased in numbers day by 

 day, until the I2th, when the Redwings became fewer and 

 the Fieldfares predominated ; this movement along shore 

 and over the sand-hills continued daily, and all day, gradually 



