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kingdom. White, of Selborne, mentions that in one very cold 
and backward season they lingered in Hampshire till June. It 
returns at the end of October or the beginning of November. 
One instance of its remaining here to build its nest has been 
obligingly communicated to me by Captain Turton, of the 
Third Dragoon Guards.—In 1836, a nest was found on the 
margin of a brook, which afterwards becomes the Leven, on 
his father’s property at Kildale, in Cleveland. The late John 
Bed, Esq., M.P. for Thirsk, shot the female bird which had 
been previously wounded: the nest contained four eggs. The 
late Mr. Macgillivray, whom I much regret to have thus to 
designate—in the accuracy of his observations as an ornithologist 
he stood unrivalled—relates that he has known individuals 
remain in the island of Harris so late as the 25th. of May, 
and at Bodhill, there Mr. Bullock has recorded that he found 
a nest in the year 1828. Other such instances have occurred 
at Godaiming, in Surrey, and near Barnet, in Middlesex. 
The migration of this species is believed to take place at 
night; and the unerring direction of nature prescribes the 
exact time for it most properly to take place. 
While with us these birds are gregarious, going in flocks, 
often of considerable magnitude. They are rather shy, and 
will not permit anything like a near approach, unless it be 
when the snow has continued for some time upon the ground, 
and all-compelling hunger overcomes their fear of ordinary 
dangers. At such times they are very abundant on the cliffs, 
and near the shores of the sea, where the saline nature of the 
atmosphere and of the marine vegetation gives them something 
of an exceptional livelihood. Ordinarily, if alarmed in a field, 
they betake themselves to the vantage-ground of any neigh¬ 
bouring trees, or else fly off to a distance on the approach 
of a stranger. In the countries where they build, they will 
drop down from their perch on the top of a tree, and hide 
in the thick brushwood. They are good birds to eat, and are 
procured in numbers for the table. They associate in some 
degree with Fieldfares, and even with Missel Thrushes, but 
only temporarily, as their flight is different. They may readily 
be preserved in a large aviary. 
Their flight is quick and a little undulated, performed by 
a series of flappings of the wings, with short intervals, during 
which they descend a little. 
Insects afford their ‘Preferential shares/ and in search of 
these they are seen in open weather on the ground in the 
