BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
5 
The Fieldfare arrives here about the middle of October, 
though Mr. R. Service records in his diary its arrival so 
early as September 24th, in 1879. The following severe 
winter caused great destruction to its numbers, though it 
would seem a hardier bird than the Redwing, and is 
always extremely wary and shy. 
In his MS. Calendar Sir William Jardine writes : 
" May 3rd, 1829. Never before saw Fieldfares in flocks 
with the Swallows here. Pairs have been known to remain 
longer." Not infrequently a few linger with us so late 
as the middle of May, but the majority depart at the end 
of April to their breeding-places in northern Europe where 
they nest, usually in colonies. 
The following statement by Mr. J. Simpson is unsub- 
stantiated : " Some years ago, when I was a youth and 
living in Dumfriesshire . . . one day I noticed what 
seemed to me to be a Thrush's nest, but in rather an 
unusual place. . . . The bird flew out as I ascended the 
tree, and I saw at once it was a Fieldfare."* 
The Fieldfare is often confused with the Mistle-Thrush, 
and the reported occurrences of its having nested in the 
county may be accounted for in this way, and cannot be 
credited. 
THE BLACKBIRD. Turdus merula, Linnseus. 
Local names — Blackie ; Merle. 
" And now, perched proudlie on the topmost spray, 
The sootie blackbird chaunts his vespers shrill ; 
While twiUght spreads his robe of sober gray. 
And to their bowers the rooks loud cawing wing their way." 
W. J. MiCKLE. — " Sir Martyny 
A very common resident throughout the county. 
In September a general " crowding-down " of Black- 
birds takes place, and numbers are to be found at the 
sides of the fields searching about in the hedge-bottoms 
* Field, 1873, Vol. XLI., p. 491. 
