Natural History of Ireland. 437 



nightingale of Norway. * What is here mentioned seems to me no- 

 thing more than a repetition of their notes, or what bird-fanciers 

 call " recording." 



Of the stomachs of three redwings opened by me, one in January 

 contained the remains of insects, two shells of Helix cellaria and 

 one of H. radiala ; two in December exhibited worms, vegetable 

 food, (chiefly bits of grass,) remains of cloeopterous insects, and se- 

 veral Limacelli ; one had in addition two of the Bulimus luhricus, 

 a Helix hispida, and three of H. rufescens : of these shells some 

 were perfect. 



The common name of this species in the north is " small Felt," 

 in contradistinction to the fieldfare, which is called " big or pigeon 

 Felt." 



The Blackbird — Tardus merula, Linn. — Is constantly resi- 

 dent, and very common in Ireland. The indigenous birds do not 

 congregate, nor have I heard of flocks being ever seen on their mi- 

 gration from the north of Europe in any part of this country, as 

 they appear in England. (See Selby's 111. of Brit. Orn. Vol. i. p. 167, 

 2d. ed.) They are indeed stated to be more numerous about Tra- 

 lee (co. Kerry) in winter than in summer, but their comparative 

 scarcity in the latter season is attributed by my correspondent to 

 the want of woods and thickets wherein to nestle. In the middle 

 of June, I have heard the blackbird sing as early in the morning as 

 a quarter past two o'clock. Thomas Walker Junior, Esq. of Bel- 

 mont, Wexford, remarks in a letter to me, dated November 1836, 

 that " last year numbers of people went to Mr Boxwell's of Lyn- 

 gestown, to hear a blackbird in his shrubberries that clapped his 

 wings and crew like a bantam cock. The circumstance was mention- 

 ed in several newspapers at the time." A similar fact is particu- 

 larly described in the Magazine of Natural History, Vol. iv. p. 433. 



In the north of Ireland, they are very destructive to fruits of al- 

 most every kind ; even apples when fallen to the ground suffer 

 much from them. To the earlier fruits in a friend's garden near 

 Belfast they were so injurious in the autumn of 1833, that he had 

 recourse to the common rat trap for their destruction. It was bait- 

 ed with currants, cherries, and early peas, and although exposed to 

 view, j- forty of these birds soon fell victims to it, and at the same 



* Mag. Zool. and Bot. Vol. ii. p. 312. 



f For many species, such as the magpie, hooded crow, &c. it requires to be 

 concealed, the bait only being exposed to view. 



