NOTES AND QUERIES. 431 



dazzled by the lights of a town, and which could not, or would not, 

 pierce the surrounding gloom. This, however, I cannot attribute to 

 the autumnal calls of the Eedwings, which are certainly to a very 

 great extent connected with their migratory movements. Mr. Stubbs 

 suggests that probably Eedwings may indulge in these nocturnal 

 wanderings and callings at their nesting haunts. A friend, who has 

 observed Eedwings and Fieldfares nesting in Scandinavia, tells me 

 that, although he repeatedly heard Fieldfares flying and calling at 

 night, yet he had never observed the same trait in the Eedwing. — 

 H. B. Booth (Ben Ehydding). 



Habits of the Redwing. — Mr. Stubbs's communication respecting 

 this bird in ' The Zoologist ' {a7ite, p. 361) must have arrested the 

 attention of every reader, and all, I think, will agree that the remarks 

 of the writer of the paper are worthy of discussion. To me his 

 experiences appear unusual, if not unique — so much so that it would 

 be satisfactory to know that records have been kept of this almost 

 continuous movement of the bird in question after dark, and also — a 

 matter of still greater interest — with reference to the occasions on 

 which he has heard its song in England. After fifty years' observa- 

 tion of our birds and their habits — and during thirty years eyes and 

 ears were in constant training and use — I should agree that the 

 " seep" of the bird is occasionally to be heard on winter nights when 

 there is a change in the weather, but certainly not on any night, and 

 again tolerably frequently in the early spring when the birds are 

 preparing for departure, although then not with any certainty or 

 regularity. It is in October and early November, at the yearly im- 

 migration of the species, that the travelling call may be heard 

 nightly, and, moreover, every few minutes when the wind is favour- 

 able for their passage. The Eedwing is a restless bird, and appa- 

 rently much more influenced by the weather than the rest of the 

 Thrush tribe ; it certainly becomes thinner, and succumbs to cold 

 more readily than the others. This may account for its frequent 

 change of locality during the winter months, and, being of a loquacious 

 disposition, thus calls our attention to its travels. Then as to song. 

 Congregations are not uncommon in the early spring when the birds 

 are collecting previous to departure, and then it is that we hear them 

 in " murmuration " or "jubilation." It is at this time, too, that an 

 occasional attempt at song — much in the style of the broken and im- 

 perfect December song of the Thrush — may be heard ; but anything 

 at all resembling the beautiful song described by those who have 

 visited the bird in its home has only twice delighted me, viz. at Little 



