96 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



In 1880 I witnessed an extraordinary immigration of 

 Fieldfares on Oct. 23. While lying waiting for a " drive " 

 of some ducks, at the edge of a lough, suddenly several 

 thousands of Fieldfares appeared, flying south-west, and 

 quite low over the heather, many passing within a foot of 

 my head as I lay concealed. They uttered, continually, a 

 peculiar low single pipe, quite different to any note I ever 

 heard Fieldfares make before or since. For some days after 

 this, the fells were "grey" with them, sitting about on 

 bare (burnt) places, especially on stones. My brother had a 

 similar experience with Redwings on Oct. 12, 1882. It was 

 a densely thick, foggy day, the mist driving across the hills, 

 and a little wood, which they had just tried out for Black- 

 game, suddenly became filled with Eedwings, which con- 

 tinued to arrive through the fog in hundreds, keeping up a 

 constant chirping chatter. 



Neither of these birds spend the winter on the hills. 

 There are neither trees nor hedges on the bleak moors to their 

 taste, so they quickly pass on to more cultivated regions. 

 Redwings, especially, make a very short stay ; they usually 

 arrive a week or ten days before the Fieldfares, but only 

 spend a day or two to rest, feeding on the berries, and in 

 moist meadows. In mild seasons a few of the Fieldfares 

 occasionally remain throughout the winter. 



Simultaneously with the arrival of these winter birds, 

 occurs the departure from the fells of the last of the less 

 hardy ones. By the middle of October the Skylarks, which 

 a fortnight earlier swarmed about the stubbles (many of 

 these, no doubt, on passage) have disappeared, and the Tit- 

 larks follow them at the end of the month. I have a note 

 made some years ago, that in a week's shooting on the 

 " white grass," at the end of October, we only observed one 

 of the latter, where in September hundreds would have been 

 seen. The Ring-Ouzel also departs with the fall of the leaf, 

 though I have noticed a single straggler lingering as late as 

 Nov. 13 ; he flew out at the end of a wooded glen, where we 

 were driving Blackgame, right in my face, his white gorget 

 plainly distinguishable. 



In 1880, on Oct. 4, I noticed a duck on Darden Lough , 



