MORE WINTER IMMIGRANTS.
The other day, calling attention to the quite abnormal number of blackbirds in field and garden, I ventured the suggestion that a much larger number were immigrants than is usually believed. No one is quite so offensively pleased with himself as the corroborated prophet. Hence this emphasis on a report (appearing in the latest Field) that a blackbird was found in North Ireland which carried a ring fixed to its leg in Heligoland ; doubtless it had reached that sanctuary from yet farther East. Discoveries of ringed birds, especially immigrant starlings, continue to multiply, and have this year proved that November and early December are the favourite dates for the journey. Perhaps the most astonishing is a merlin shot in Ireland and ringed in Iceland. But why shot ? That beautiful little hawk is much too rare in districts both of England and Ireland where it used to be common enough.
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