436 Contrihutions to the 



past with tliis species, to which one author adds the Hel. hortensis, 

 (Jour, of a Nat. p. 339,) and another the Hel. hicida, (Wern. Mem. 

 Vol. iii. p. 180,) but its predilection for such food is far from being li- 

 mited to these species. The beautiful Helix arbustorum, whose 

 delicate shell is much more easily broken than either of the others, 

 is an especial favourite ; but this species is not by any means so ge- 

 nerally distributed, particularly as the first mentioned. So eagerly 

 is it sought for by the thrush, and probably also by the blackbird, 

 that in some localities, when the fragments of shells they had broken 

 first announced to me its contiguity, I have found it difficult to ob- 

 tain specimens after their successful foraging. 



In addition to the naked or externally shelless snails, insects, 

 seeds, &c. the smaller Helices and other land shells form in winter 

 a very considerable portion of the thrush's food. From a single 

 stomach I have taken the Helix cellaria, H. jmra, and H. radiala, 

 in addition to Limacelli ; and have similarly met with the Bulimus 

 lubricus. 



Redwing — Turdus iliacus, Linn. — The migration of this species, 

 like that of the fieldfare, extends every winter over Ireland. In 

 the north they generally arrive early in October, and remain until 

 the beginning or middle of April ; until the end of this month they 

 delayed in the late spring of 1837. About Killaloe, I am informed 

 that their average arrival is in the first week of November. In 

 Kerry the redwing is reported to me as more common than the 

 fieldfare, and in the north it likewise prevails numerically over this 

 species. What has been said a page or two back on the haunts and 

 occasional migration of the fieldfare equally applies to the red- 

 wing. In the severe winter of 1813 these birds were so reduced 

 about Youghal that my informant killed several of both species with 

 a stick thrown from the hand. In the norths I am told, this winter 

 was remarkably fatal to birds generally. 



In fine weather, and chiefly towards spring, a flock of redwings 

 from a hedge or plantation sometimes delights us with a most agree- 

 able concert, and a single bird occasionally utters a few melodious 

 notes. A young friend resident at Cromac, near Belfast, who states 

 that he has often heard single redwings sing their favourite tune, 

 being early in the morning and forenoon, compares what he desig- 

 nates their song to that of the gray linnet, (Fringilla cannabina,) 

 and remarks, that it is always in a low subdued tone ; but from what 

 we read of their melody in their native forests, they are called the 



