88 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



running from Belfast to Ulverston in February 1890. The 

 night of the 21st was very foggy, with a south-easterly wind. 

 On the morning of the 2 2d the deck of the Topic was strewn 

 with dead and wounded birds. The crew picked up about sixty 

 birds, chiefly Song Thrushes, together with a Snipe and a few 

 Blackbirds, Starlings, and Skylarks. 



REDWING. 



Tardus iliacus, L. 



During the months of October and November we often hear 

 flights of Redwings passing over the border city between 



1 1 P.M. and 1 A.M. Farren of Eavenglass tells me that when 

 fishing off that coast he has often recognised in the dark the 

 cries of parties of Redwings travelling along the seaboard. 

 Many individuals cross the Lake hills. In bad weather you may 

 see them in the dales, aimlessly drifting about the fields as if at 

 a loss to find shelter from the showers of driving sleet which 

 descend in such blinding squalls from the mountain side. 

 During protracted frost Redwings seek the neighbourhood of 

 sheep, or congregate on the river-banks; a few individuals 

 haunt the exposed edges of our tide-worn salt marshes in the 

 struggle to adapt themselves to their altered environment. 



FIELDFARE. 



Turdus pilaris, L. 



A solitary entry of January 1620 shows that the trivial name 

 of this Thrush was then in use in Lakeland : ' A felde fare, j d.' 

 Then, no doubt, as at the present time, vast numbers of Felties 

 occasionally visited Lakeland. The autumn of 1890 was a 

 great year for this bird. The first droves that I heard of made 

 their appearance on the fells near Kirkby-Stephen before the 

 end of September. Three weeks later the country was fairly 

 inundated with swarms of these birds, the greater number of 

 which passed away to the westward, possibly to Ireland. 



