:!ji. TJMt gag- 



4 THE BIKDS OF DEVOX. 



1S30, p. 301). A cream-coloured specimen was shot near South ilolton 

 in July or August 18S3. 



Redwing. Turdus iliacics, Linn. 



[Windell, "Windle, Winuel, "VMn'el, "Wlndall, Winnard : Dev.] 



A winter visitor, generally very abundant. A very large flight was 

 seen near Plymouth, November 1st, 1871 (J. G. and G. F. M., Zool. 1872, 

 p. 2920). The Redwing was, however, very scarce in the winter of 1879-80, 

 and also in that of 1882-3. In the severe weather of 1885-8G and 1890-9 1 

 it was extremely abundant in the South Hams. It arrives from the middle 

 of October to the beginning of Xovember, and leaves about the middle or 

 end of March. On warm and sunny days during March Iledwings 

 may be heard singing soft sweet notes from hedge-row elms. We are 

 told that they are only doing what bird-fanciers term " recording," or 

 softly practising their full song; but what we have often heard has 

 amounted to more than this, and has been, we believe, the utmost effort 

 of the bird, concerning whose summer warblings, when heard in their 

 Scandinavian nesting-places, there is some difference of opinion, the bird 

 by some being styled the "Swedish Nightingale," while others speak but 

 disparagingly of its powers of song. 



A buff-coloured individual was killed near Plymouth a few days before 

 March 2nd, 1870, and was presented to the late Mr. Frederick Bond 

 (J. G., MS. Notes). A specimen entirely of a whitish colour, except the 

 rufous under wing-coverts and axillaries, was picked up dead near Exeter, 

 December 10th, 1878, and was seen by us in the flesh. It Avas, we 

 believe, in the collection of the late Mr. Marsh-Dunn, of Teignmouth, 

 who obtained it from the late Mr. Byne. Iledwings are fond of roosting 

 in spruce-fir trees. ^Vhen feeding on pasture-lands their protective 

 resemblance to dead leaves, blown about by the wind, is vei'y remarkable. 

 In protracted frosts they resort to woods and coverts, and are the first 

 birds to perish from the cold.^ 



Fieldfare. Turdus pilaris, Linn. 



[Blue-bird, fylvare (ohs.), Yole-Tiers : Dev.'] 



A winter visitor, arriving in October and remaining till the end of 

 March, and sometimes till April. Abundant in South Devon in some 

 years and very scarce in others. Montagu says that in the winter of 

 1798 prodigious flocks appeared in the AVest of England, but as snow soon 

 afterwards set in, thousands were picked up starved to death in Devon- 

 shire. Large flocks were seen near Plymouth on November 1st, 1871 

 (G. F. M., Zool. 1872, p. 2920) ; and Fieldfares were extremely plentiful 

 there from January to March 1875 (Zool. ]87o, pp. 4372, 4448). Great 

 numbers were seen in and around Exeter at the end of December 1874, 

 at the beginning of January 1875, and in December 1890 and in January 



