THE COMMON OR SONG THRUSH. 135 



opinion (as is Mr. Selby with regard to Northumberland,) that they 

 are not our indigenous birds which so congregate, but that such 

 bodies are on their migration from more northern countries. 

 As confirmative of this view, there does not seem to be any 

 diminution of the species in its accustomed haunts, nor are flocks 

 seen, except for a short time at a particular season. 



In England the thrush is considered only as an early songster, 

 beginning its melody at earliest by the end of January (Selby), 

 and continuing it until July (Jenyns). But in Ireland, where our 

 winters are milder, its song, even in the north, is continued in 

 fine weather throughout the year, excepting at the moulting 

 period, and, as if the bird felt the winter day too brief, its melody 

 does not cease when the sun goes down. In December, 1831, 

 I heard it at "Wolf -hill, on the 5th, 30 minutes; on the 19th, 

 40 minutes; and on the 26th, 45 minutes after sunset. Similar 

 memoranda were made in December, 1835, 1837, and 1839, 

 when so many thrushes and robins were sometimes singing 

 at the same time as to produce quite a concert, broken in upon 

 occasionally by the harsh call of the missel thrush. * In sum- 

 mer, too, the notes of the song thrush are sometimes prolonged 

 until a very late hour. On the 27th of May, I once heard them 

 at half past nine o'clock, p.m.; as a friend on one occasion did 

 about midsummer, at a quarter to ten o'clock, p.m. I once, on the 

 15th of June, listened to[its song at Wolf-hill, so early as a quarter 

 past two o'clock, a.m., at which hour on the 16th of that month 

 in another year, it was heard at the Falls : followed a few minutes 

 afterwards, by the note of the cuckoo, and the song of the swallow. 

 When travelling in the month of June over a very wild mountain 

 tract covered with heath, between Cushendall and Ballycastle, 

 (co. Antrim,) and some miles distant from any trees, I heard two 

 thrushes singing: the nearer one, which I saw and listened to for 

 some time, was perched on a dead ragweed (Senecio Jacobaa) that 

 overtopped the heath. The next day one appeared at a still wilder 



* Mr. Poole, writing of the county of Wexford, remarks on his having heard 

 thrushes, sky-larks, and hedge-sparrows sing during a very hard frost. 



