Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/156

 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. R. 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.