BLACKBIRD. 15 



undertaken during the hours of darkness, though, on 

 October 1903, a continuous passage took place from daylight 

 to dusk, the birds coming direct from the north-east. The 

 great majority of these migratory birds are young males of 

 the year, with dark coloured bills, but on 24th January 1880, 

 there arrived on the Holderness coast many fine old cocks, 

 with great numbers of Fieldfares, probably from Northern 

 Europe. After their arrival, these birds appear to be much 

 more fatigued by their passage than their congeners, and 

 shooters on the coast have on several occasions had to avoid 

 treading them under foot. On their return passage in the 

 spring they are not often reported, but during the early morn- 

 ing of I2th March 1877, a few were killed against the Flam- 

 borough Beacon, together with several Fieldfares. These birds 

 had, no doubt, wintered to the southward of these Islands, 

 and were on migration to their native haunts ; the evidence 

 in favour of this supposition is strengthened by the fact that 

 every spring a similar movement is observed in the Teesmouth 

 area early in March ; on the I5th of that month, 1904, a 

 cock Blackbird came in from eastward at Redcar, early 

 in the morning, whistling merrily as he flew, and examples 

 are occasionally picked up dead on the beach, having probably 

 perished at sea and been washed ashore. Observations from 

 the East Coast, communicated to the British Association Migra- 

 tion Committee, prove that unusual " rushes " took place in 

 1880, on 20th November ; in 1883, on 2ist September, 28th 

 to 3 ist October, and 2nd to 8th November ; and in 1886, on 

 4th to 8th November. In addition to these, I noticed in 1889 

 a constant stream of immigrants passing Redcar from mid- 

 October to mid-November, and great numbers arrived in 

 October 1895, 1898, and 1903, in the last instance coming 

 directly off the sea. Other evidence indicates that they 

 usually leave us during February and March. 



In the exceptionally severe winters of 1878-79, 1879-80, 

 and in 1894-95, their ranks were greatly thinned, thousands 

 perishing of hunger, and in the springs succeeding these 

 years the absence of Blackbirds from their usual haunts 



