130 
MEHULIDiE. 
unimportant difference of the Irish one being the deeper in tint, 
owing, it may be presumed, either to its being killed sooner after 
moult, or being less exposed to the sun and weather than the 
Nepal bird. The mere disagreement in size between them is not, 
I consider, of any specific consequence ; but the discrepancy in 
the relative length of the quill feathers to each other may be so 
considered, should it prove to be a permanent character. 
THE EIELDEAEE. 
Blue Pigeon, or Big Eelt. 
Turdrn pilaris , Linn. 
Is a regular winter visitant, 
Appearing generally in the north towards the end of October or 
beginning of November. In 1840, they did not arrive at the 
Ealls, near Belfast, until the 9th of November, on the morning of 
which day a flock was seen there by Wm. Sinclaire, Esq., at a 
great height in the air, coming from a north-easterly direction : this 
gentleman is of opinion that in the course of the preceding moon- 
light night, they may have come in one flight direct from Norway. 
The first redwings of the season made their appearance at the 
Ealls, under precisely similar circumstances, after a fine moonlight 
night a month before. So early as the 24th of September, 1847, 
I saw a small flock of fieldfares at Holywood House (co. of Down) 
and a larger flock of redwings ; they were quite separate. The 
first arrival of the fieldfare in the county of Wexford has been 
noted in different years from the 20th of September to the 2nd of 
November.* Mr. Macgillivray mentions its appearing in "the 
northern and eastern parts of Britain" (vol. ii. p. 108) at the 
end of October or beginning of November. Sir Wm. Jardine, 
writing from Du mfr ies-shire, remarks, that " its time of arrival is 
late in November" (vol. ii. p. 81). I am assured by Mr. Eichard 
Langtry that early in September, 1838, he raised two or three 
fieldfares from among juniper bushes, at Aberarder, Inverness- 
shire. On the 28th of September, 1843, I saw several of these 
* Poole. 
