132 
MERULIM. 
that one or two nights of frost are certain to bring them back 
again. When they disappear, he thinks they visit the mountains. 
Such, likewise, are their habits in the north, as in the open weather, 
they frequent the upland districts, but are driven to the lowlands 
by frost and snow.* Their favourite haunts around Belfast are 
the fields skirting the base of the mountains, more especially those 
surrounded by tall white-thorn hedges, which for the sake of 
shelter have been permitted to grow to maturity in a state of un- 
pruned and wild luxuriance. Although frequently associating 
with the redwing, the fieldfare may be considered as preferring 
localities of a wilder nature than those usually resorted to by that 
bird, and is accordingly, in such places the more common of the 
two species. 
My correspondents in Kerry and Wexford mention the ground 
as being the ordinary roosting-place of the fieldfare. When re- 
turning at a late hour from hunting, I have several times in the 
short days of winter raised flocks of fieldfares that were roosting 
near the summit of heath-clad hills considerably distant from their 
daily haunts, as well as from any hedges or plantations. Mr. K, 
Ball mentions his having once seen a flock of about five hundred 
perched for the night on a spruce-fir near Youghal, and that 
fieldfares and redwings in large flocks — “ a stream of them 
pass over the Zoological Gardens, Dublin, commonly in the winter, 
to roost in the Phoenix Park. The flight of the fieldfare is well 
described by Mr. Macgillivray, whose description of its habits 
generally is very good; as is that also of Sir Wm. Jardine. 
I have little doubt, from having at such times remarked their 
scarcity, that when a severe frost sets gradually in, fieldfares 
generally leave, as in England, the northern parts of this country. 
Though the species is naturally wild and difficult of approach, 
such individuals as remain behind are driven to the bogs, ditches, 
and drains, in quest of food, and suffer so severely from hunger 
and cold combined, as to become easy victims to the most juve- 
nile sportsmen. A note, dated Belfast, 1st of December, 1846, is 
to the effect, that for the last few days a severe frost prevailed, 
* See Journal of a Naturalist, p. 259, third ed. for the opposite procedure. 
