132 merulid^e. 



that one or two nights of frost are certain to bring them back 

 again. When they disappear, he thinks they visit the mountains. 

 Such, likewise, are their habits in the north, as in the open weather, 

 they frequent the upland districts, but are driven to the lowlands 

 by frost and snow.* Their favourite haunts around Belfast are 

 the fields skirting the base of the mountains, more especially those 

 surrounded by tall white-thorn hedges, which for the sake of 

 shelter have been permitted to grow to maturity in a state of un- 

 pruned and wild luxuriance. Although frequently associating 

 with the redwing, the fieldfare may be considered as preferring 

 localities of a wilder nature than those usually resorted to by that 

 bird, and is accordingly, in such places the more common of the 

 two species. 



My correspondents in Kerry and Wexford mention the ground 

 as being the ordinary roosting-place of the fieldfare. When re- 

 turning at a late hour from hunting, I have several times in the 

 short days of winter raised flocks of fieldfares that were roosting 

 near the summit of heath-clad hills considerably distant from their 

 daily haunts, as well as from any hedges or plantations. Mr. R. 

 Ball mentions his having once seen a flock of about five hundred 

 perched for the night on a spruce-fir near Youghal, and that 

 fieldfares and redwings in large flocks — " a stream of them " — 

 pass over the Zoological Gardens, Dublin, commonly in the winter, 

 to roost in the Phoenix Park. The flight of the fieldfare is well 

 described by Mr. Macgillivray, whose description of its habits 

 generally is very good ; as is that also of Sir Wm. Jardine. 



I have little doubt, from having at such times remarked their 

 scarcity, that when a severe frost sets gradually in, fieldfares 

 generally leave, as in England, the northern parts of this country. 

 Though the species is naturally wild and difficult of approach, 

 such individuals as remain behind are driven to the bogs, ditches, 

 and drains, in quest of food, and suffer so severely from hunger 

 and cold combined, as to become easy victims to the most juve- 

 nile sportsmen. A note, dated Belfast, 1st of December, 1846, is 

 to the effect, that for the last few days a severe frost prevailed, 



* See Journal of a Naturalist, p. 259, third ed. for the opposite procedure. 



