76 CLARKE : THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



hundreds and heard incessantly chattering for several days 

 before departure. During this conclave they are very restless, 

 taking short flights en masse but returning after a short absence. 

 The latest date for its occurrence in spring known to me is 

 June I St, 1869, when Mr. Lucas observed it at Brimham, in 

 Nidderdale. There are many records during May, some up to 

 the middle of that month. 



Historically as a Yorkshire bird the Fieldfare claims an 

 ancestry of great antiquity, for we find in the ordinances as to 

 the price of food in the city of York in the year 1393 — the 

 1 6th year of the reign of King Richard the Second — that the 

 price for twelve Fieldfares be twopence. 



There are several records of pied specimens having been 

 seen or captured in the county, and a light buff variety at 

 Wakefield was noted by the late Mr. Wm. Talbot in 1873. 



A general vernacular name for this species is Fellfer or 

 Felfer ; while Bluetail is a local name in vogue in the Don- 

 caster and Craven districts, and Bluerump about Doncaster. 



TTJRDUS MERULA. 

 Blackbird. 



A resident, common. 



' Equally common with the above [the Song Thrush]. A male black- 

 bird paired this season with a female thrush in my own aviary [York]. 

 The thrush built the nest and laid one egg when things were put a stop to 

 by a wood pigeon, which had formerly built its nest in precisely the same 

 place.' — Thomas A His, 1S44. 



The Blackbird is a common and generally distributed 

 resident, occurring at a considerable elevation in the moorland 

 and fell districts. In addition to this it is a winter visitant, or 

 an autumn bird of passage, immigrant Blackbirds arriving on 



Trans.Y.N.U., 1SS4 (pub. 1886). Series B 



