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"FIELDFARE. 
hither, they are loath to leave us, and remain till late in 
April, while many tarry on the coast in flocks, and a few 
here and there inland, so late as the middle or latter part of 
May, and some even till the first week in June: the Rev. 
Gilbert White, of Selborne, mentions one season in which 
they remained till that time, and others have recorded the 
like. 
The Fieldfare is associated in the mind of every one who 
has been accustomed to go out with a gun in severe weather, 
with the idea of frost in the air, and snow upon the ground. 
Then these birds, usually so shy and wary, are subdued by 
hunger to a greater or less degree of tameness, and may be 
approached within gunshot, often within pistol-shot. They 
are very good eating, though slightly bitter in taste; and are 
accordingly much sought after even now, as they were by 
the Romans formerly, and are sold in large numbers in every 
market. When the storm breaks up, they betake themselves 
to a farther distance, and to more wild or retired situations; 
to mountainous districts especially, if any such be in the 
neighbourhood; there they then find food more congenial to 
them, the search for which nothing but the necessity forced 
upon them by the rigours of frost and snow had compelled 
them to relinquish. Throughout the winter however many 
frequent the cultivated districts, the favourite berries of the 
hawthorn supplying them in hard weather with food, and if 
there be any hedges which have escaped the almost universal 
low lopping in which high farming delights, there you can 
approach under cover your once in former days so highly- 
prized game, and find them in numbers. Everything seen 
with the magnifying glasses of school days is unduly raised 
in the imagination, and the Fieldfare looms large in the 
distance of the landscape, and of the memory retentive of 
former scenes of pleasure and temporary excitement—‘labuntur 
anni!’ 
On trees or in hedges they are scarcely so suspicious as on 
the ground, where you can hardly approach them within a 
hundred yards, and if the majority fly off first, a few generally 
‘wait a little longer.’ 
These birds, as mentioned above, would seem to migrate in 
a north-easterly direction, and accordingly leave Ireland sooner 
than Scotland on their return to their native lands, and 
appear to choose moonlight nights for their flight. While 
with us they leave the more northerly for more southerly 
