438 Contributions to the 



time three thrushes shared a similar fate. When a cherry and 

 pear were placed on the trap, the former was always prefered 

 to the pear. All of these birds but one were caught by the neck, 

 thus proving that it was in the act of eating the fruit they were 

 secured. 



On observing some plants in the Belfast Botanic Garden in Janu- 

 ary last, that had been much injured by birds, I learned on inquiry 

 from the curator, that he had seen blackbirds tearing up different 

 species of saxifrage, even in mild weather ; and I saw plants of the 

 Saxifraga pedalifida and S. tridactylites, of which hardly a fragment 

 remained, though each had formed a round clump at least a yard 

 in diameter ; beside these, I remarked a similarly large patch of Sax. 

 hypnoides untouched ; but this species, I was told, had elsewhere 

 been attacked in the garden. In the present instance it was unin- 

 jured, apparently in consequence of forming a more unyielding mass, 

 and, besides, its green surface foliage was so dense, that insects, &c 

 ' could hardly lodge beneath it. In our mountain glens I have in 

 winter observed tufts of the rein-deer lichen {Cladonia rangiferina') 

 lying strewn about, and inferred it was the work of either the 

 thrush or blackbird in search of food, and, from what is just stated, 

 I have little doubt of the correctness of my inference. 



Ten of these birds killed in November, December, and January 

 in various years, the contents of whose stomachs I inspected, pre- 

 sented haws, coleopterous and other insects and their larvae, earth 

 worms, limacelli ; &c in three of them were land-shells, one 

 alone producing six specimens of Bulimus lubricus, and ten of Helix 

 radiata — the weather was mild when this bird was obtained, as it 

 was when another filled with haws was procured. 



I have seen several Irish specimens of the blackbird variegated 

 with white, in some instances obviously the result of disease. Some 

 of them had the legs and toes also marked with this colour. 



The Ring Ouzel — Turdus torqualus, Linn. — Extends its mi- 

 gration in summer over this country. It has occurred to me in the 

 mountains of the extreme north-west in Donegal, * and at Achil 

 Head, one of the most westerly points of Connaught. In the counties 

 of Clare, Kerry, Cork, Waterford, Tipperary and Dublin, it is stat- 

 ed by correspondents to be met with ; and I have seen it on Carling- 

 ford mountain in Louth, as well as in the chain of Mourne moun- 



* J. V. Stewart, Esq. mentions in a letter to me, that he has twice seen the 

 ring-ouzel during winter in this county. 



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