FIELDFARE. 
43 
continued Harley, “ about nine miles below the town of Leicester, on the banks 
of the river Soar, there is a famous place of resort of these Thrushes, called 
Walton Holm, but more especially do I refer to a swampy meadow hard by it, 
which not inaptly might be termed a dormitory, for toward nightfall, the winter 
through, the Fieldfare may be seen flying thither by hundreds in a group,'’ 
adding that the fact of its affecting the low grounds adverted to is indis- 
putable. 
Although there is no evidence of this bird nesting in the county, !Mr. J. 
H. Ellis, writing in ‘The Zoologist’ for 1864 (p. 9248), states that “On the 
29th of July, 1864, a Fieldfare, Turdus pilaris, was shot in the garden of 
Mr. H. R. Hurst, The Oaks, near Kirby Muxloe, Leicestershire. The bird had 
been about the garden during the summer.” It was apparently forwarded to 
the Editor of the ‘ Field ’ for examination, but whether received or not cannot 
be stated, the Editor simply replying to Mr. Ellis’s communication of 6th Aug., 
1864: — “The occurrence of the Fieldfare in July is extremely interesting, but 
not new, several previous instances having come under our notice.” 
!Mr. Macaulay’s note-book records that “In 1877 Fieldfares were observed 
passing over Kibworth on the 30th April, and the 3rd and 10th May. In 1878 
the first Fieldfares appeared on the 15th Oct., and, in the severe winter of 
1878-9, when the frost began on 7th Dec., 1878, and did not finally break up 
till 2nd Feb., 1879, they might be seen by thousands and shot by scores during 
the first fortnight, after which they entirely disappeared, and not a single bird 
of the three kinds was seen till the frost broke up, when the Starlings returned 
at once, but the first Fieldfare was not seen till 15th Feb.” Mr. Davenport saw 
five near Skeffington Vale on 12th May, 1879, his earliest record of its appearance 
being 2nd Sept., 1877, when he saw one at Lowesby. He remarks that it had 
possibly passed the summer there, and further says that he reported the occurrence 
in the ‘ Field.’ Without going so far as to say that Mr. Davenport was mistaken, 
I would remark that the Missel-Thrush, which is often solitary, though more 
commonly occurring in family parties at that time of the year, is frequently 
mistaken by sportsmen for an early arrival of the Fieldfare. I have been sur- 
prised, during the past few winters, by seeing Fieldfares close to the Cattle- 
market, which is on the Aylestone Road, one mile from the centre of the town, 
and I found that they came to tall hedges of some antiquity which produced 
berries. These tall hedges, which were, alas! cut down in 1887, and replaced 
by the fashionable “ hairpin,” “ unclimbable ” iron fence, afforded food for many 
birds. Redwings, as well as Fieldfares, but I always think the latter seem fonder 
of the haws than any other bird, and, if so, their scarcity in Leicestershire, in 
comparison with the Redwing, which feeds on anything, may be due to the 
cutting and reducing of the tall “ bullfinch ” (bull-fence) hedges to low fences, 
in the greater part of the county, in obedience to the present laws of farming. 
Harley says that, although more partial to haws and mountain-ash berries, it 
