TUKDID^. 5 



1891. They were very scarce in the South Hams in the winter of 

 1879-80, and in that ot 1SS2-83 near Exeter. 



On March 5th, 1890, after two days' hard frost, flocks of Fieldfares 

 appeared on the meadows near Exmoutb, though none had been seen 

 there during the preceding winter. They remained for a week and then 

 disappeared. On l^lst December, 1890, vast numbers visited the South 

 of Devon, and remained about Exeter and Exmouth till February 1891. 



By the end of the second week in October the first Fieldfares are to be 

 observed on Dartmoor, where they appear earlier than we have ever 

 noticed them on the lowlands. They are then in large flocks and very 

 wild, flying oti' chattering when one is still at a considerable distance from 

 them. These birds have a strong game-scent ; the setters would always 

 begin feathering when they came across ground where Fieldfares had been 

 recently feeding, and if the birds were still before them would come to a 

 steady point. They remain on the moors until driven ofl' by severe 

 weather, when they visit the lowlands, and in deep snow swarm about 

 town gardens in the south of the county. 



In North Devon Fieldfares are always scarce, and soaie winters 

 pass without one being seen. It is only in very severe weather that 

 any are noticed. In the long and bitter winter of 1800-61 vast 

 numbers of Fieldfares resorted to Lundy Island, where their starved and 

 frozen bodies were lying on the ground iu all directions. The rats, which 

 infest the island in myriads, had a good time of it in picking the birds 

 clean. "We have often, in severe frosts, brought both Fieldfares and 

 Iveduings into the house, and putting them in a warm room and trying 

 them with various kinds of food have done our best to restore them, but 

 have never succeeded iu keeping them alive for more than a few days. 

 They never recover from the cruel frost-grip. In mid-April, before their 

 departure for the north. Fieldfares assemble in flocks on the tops of tall 

 trees and keep up a continuous twittering which may be heard at some 

 distance. On January 25th, 1840, one was heard and seen singing at 

 Honiton (E. Murch, Zool. 1816, p. ll!97). AVe onco saw Fieldfares in 

 this country as late as the first week in May, and this, curiously enough, 

 was in a London square. 



A specimen with the plumage much mottled with white is in the 

 A. M. M., probably shot near Topsliam. 



We once noticed a Fieldfare as early as September 4th, and are inclined 

 to believe that it was a bird which had been slightly wounded, and so 

 prevented from going north the previous spring. Mr. li. M. J. Teil 

 mentions in the ' Field' for September 19th, lfc91, having seen some at 

 jScwton Abbot on 17th of that month. 



White's Thrush. Turdm varins, Pall. 



An accidental visitor of extremely rare occurrence. An example was 

 shot by Mr. E. Studdy in Dene Wood on the edj^e of J)artmoor, iicjir 

 Ashhurton, January 11th, 18^1. It was in company with three or four 

 other birds, apparently of the same species, and, as in other instances of 



