130 merulidjE. 



unimportant difference of the Irish one being the deeper in tint, 

 owing, it may be presumed, either to its being killed sooner after 

 moult, or being less exposed to the sun and weather than the 

 Nepal bird. The mere disagreement in size between them is not, 

 I consider, of any specific consequence -, but the discrepancy in 

 the relative length of the quill feathers to each other may be so 

 considered, should it prove to be a permanent character. 



THE EIELDEAEE. 



Blue Pigeon, or Big Pelt. 



Turdus pilaris, Linn. 

 Is a regular winter visitant, 



Appearing generally in the north towards the end of October or 

 beginning of November. In 1840, they did not arrive at the 

 Ealls, near Belfast, until the 9th of November, on the morning of 

 which day a flock was seen there by Wm. Sinclaire, Esq., at a 

 great height in the air, coming from a north-easterly direction : this 

 gentleman is of opinion that in the course of the preceding moon- 

 light night, they may have come in one flight direct from Norway. 

 The first redwings of the season made their appearance at the 

 Ealls, under precisely similar circumstances, after a fine moonlight 

 night a month before. So early as the 24th of September, 1 847, 

 I saw a small flock of fieldfares at Holywood House (co. of Down) 

 and a larger flock of redwings ; they were quite separate. The 

 first arrival of the fieldfare in the county of Wexford has been 

 noted in different years from the 20th of September to the 2nd of 

 November.* Mr. Macgillivray mentions its appearing in "the 

 northern and eastern parts of Britain" (vol. ii. p. 108) at the 

 end of October or beginning of November. Sir Wm. Jardine, 

 writing from Dumfries-shire, remarks, that " its time of arrival is 

 late in November" (vol. ii.-p. 81). I am assured by Mr. Eichard 

 Langtry that early in September, 1838, he raised two or three 

 fieldfares from among juniper bushes, at Aberarder, Inverness- 

 shire. On the 28th of September, 1843, I saw several of these 



* Poole. 



