THE FIELDFARE. 131 



birds at Ballochmorrie, in Ayrshire; and when at Dunskey, Wigton- 

 shire, in the middle of October of the following year, I observed 

 large flocks. 



This bird remains until a late period in spring. In seven diffe- 

 rent years, flocks were observed about Belfast, from the middle to 

 the end of April, and continued until the latter period in two 

 years (1834 and 1842), although there had been some weeks of 

 fine summer-like weather previously, which we might imagine 

 would have tempted them to move northwards. 



On the evening of the 7th of May, 1836, Mr. W. Sinclaire, 

 when at Ms residence, the Palls, observed a large flock migrating 

 in a north-east direction, and heard them calling as they passed 

 overhead. They were considered to be on their way from some dis- 

 tant locality, as none had been seen in his neighbourhood for some 

 time before. But when the season was as far advanced in the very 

 late spring of 1837, fieldfares still frequented their winter quarters 

 there, the great body of them remaining longer than ever before 

 known. They likewise remained in the county of Kerry in the 

 spring of 1837, until the end of April, which is later than had 

 been before noticed.' 34 ' The middle of April is the latest time 

 at which they have been met with in the county of Wexford ;t 

 but at Ballinderry, on the borders of Lough Neagh, about a 

 dozen of these birds were seen in a hedge-row, in 1 842, so late 

 as the 31st of May; their call was heard, and the blue of the back 

 distinctly seen, so that no mistake could have been made respecting 

 the species. Sir Win. Jardine remarks, that the " great body re- 

 migrate during the month of May." The ordinary arrival of the 

 species in the north of Ireland, and its departure thence, certainly 

 take place at earlier periods than the south (?) of Scotland, as 

 noticed in that author's work. 



The Rev. Thomas Knox of Toomavara remarks in a letter to 

 me, with respect to his present neighbourhood, and Killaloe, his 

 former residence, that the fieldfares are not so numerous, and are 

 always later in appearing than the redwings ; that if the weather be 

 mild, they retire in the middle of winter for weeks together, but 

 * Rev. T. Knox. f Mr. Poole. 



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