THE COMMON OR SONG THRUSH. 
135 
opinion (as is Mr. Selby with regard to Northumberland,) that they 
are not our indigenous birds which so congregate, but that such 
bodies are on their migration from more northern countries. 
As confirmative of this view, there does not seem to be any 
diminution of the species in its accustomed haunts, nor are flocks 
seen, except for a short time at a particular season. 
In England the thrush is considered only as an early songster, 
beginning its melody at earliest by the end of January (Selby), 
and continuing it until July (Jenyns). But in Ireland, where our 
winters are milder, its song, even in the north, is continued in 
fine weather throughout the year, excepting at the moulting 
period, and, as if the bird felt the winter day too brief, its melody 
does not cease when the sun goes down. In December, 1831, 
I heard it at Wolf- hill, on the 5th, 30 minutes; on the 19th, 
40 minutes; and on the 26th, 45 minutes after sunset. Similar 
memoranda were made in December, 1835, 1837, and 1839, 
when so many thrushes and robins were sometimes singing 
at the same time as to produce quite a concert, broken in upon 
occasionally by the harsh call of the missel thrush. * In sum- 
mer, too, the notes of the song thrush are sometimes prolonged 
until a very late hour. On the 27 th of May, I once heard them 
at half past nine o'clock, p.m.; as a friend on one occasion did 
about midsummer, at a quarter to ten o'clock, p.m. I once, on the 
15th of June, listened to its song at Wolf- hill, so early as a quarter 
past two o'clock, a.m., at which hour on the 16th of that month 
in another year, it was heard at the Ealls : followed a few minutes 
afterwards, by the note of the cuckoo, and the song of the swallow. 
When travelling in the month of June over a very wild mountain 
tract covered with heath, between Cushendall and Bally castle, 
(co. Antrim,) and some miles distant from any trees, I heard two 
thrushes singing: the nearer one, which I saw and listened to for 
some time, was perched on a dead ragweed ( Senecio Jacobaa ) that 
overtopped the heath. The next day one appeared at a still wilder 
* Mr. Poole, writing of the county of Wexford, remarks on his having heard 
thrushes, sky-larks, and hedge-sparrows sing during a very hard frost. 
