THE FIELD-FARE. 287 



also the thunder of the ocean against a rocky shore, which 

 was dreadful ; and I had occasion to pass along the coast- 

 line from the Tay to Aberdeen, as soon as the road was at 

 all practicable, on the tops of the dry stone or mud fences, or 

 leg-deep in snow, or any way. That road commands not a 

 little of the coast, and the quantity of wreck cast high on 

 the beaches, or appearing ragged out of the sands, was most 

 melancholy. 



Now, in the early part of that week, the field-fares were 

 coming in absolute clouds ; and I remember an old country- 

 man disliking the omen, and saying, " There will be news of 

 this, though many that are in health now will never tell the 

 tale." And the news did come, and if I mistook not (for it 

 was not a day for calm observation), it must have caught the 

 birds on their voyage ; for snow and birds were drifting 

 together. My observation, remembered through the chequered 

 lights of so many years and chancings (it never was worth 

 much) may go for nothing ; but it stands recorded that, 

 during that storm, which was as far-extended as it was fierce, 

 the field-fares were driven diagonally over the island ; that 

 vast numbers of them were found dead in Dorset and Devon; 

 and that the Atlantic threw back the dead bodies of many 

 more along the western coast. 



The places of the island where these birds come in the 

 greatest numbers, are those that have a north-east aspect. 

 My personal observation does not reach Caithness, or south of 

 the Spurn ; but in the intermediate parts, the southern shore 

 of the Moray Firth, East Lothian, Berwick, Northumber- 

 land, and the line of coast on to Flamborough Head, are the 

 places where they appear in the greatest numbers ; and they 

 come first to those places which are farthest to the north. 



During the day they spread over a considerable extent of 

 surface, though rather in an expanded flock than in detached 

 individuals ; but they collect together towards night, roost in 



