192 MR SELBY ON THE WINTER OF 1838. 



nuttT was observed 2 F., and again on the morning of January 21. 

 at 2 F. Early in March the frost abated in rigour, and a slow thaw 

 began to melt the vast accumulation of snow which had been drifted into 

 the lanes, hollows, and hedge banks by the severe and oft-repeated gales 

 that had occurred during the two months frost. Up to this period none 

 of those indications which we had been accustomed to hail as the har- 

 bingers of spring had been observed, such as the song of the missel- 

 thrush and the mavis, the cooing of the ring-dove, or the pipe of the 

 golden plover, which in usual seasons seldom fail to greet our ears with 

 their welcome notes before February has advanced into the second week. 

 On referring to my notes I find it was not till the 5th and 6th of March 

 that the peawit and golden plover were first seen, or the carol of the 

 lark heard ; on the 7th the thrush and missel-thrush were in song, being a 

 period later by nearly a month, than any I can find in a register kept 

 for many years past, and it was not till the 20th thai the congregated 

 flocks of the ring-dove began to disperse, or that they were heard coo- 

 ing and exhibiting that peculiar flight which distinguishes the species 

 at the time of pairing, and which in ordinary years seldom fails to occur 

 before the 8th or 1 Oth of February. It was now that the effects of this 

 long-continued storm, so remarkable for the great degree of cold that 

 accompanied it, became fully apparent ; for instead of the host of birds 

 that were wont to resort to our groves and plantations at this season, 

 and whose " wood-notes wild" used to greet us in every direction, a few 

 individuals or a solitary pair alone were to be seen, and where, a season 

 or two before, a united concert of a multitude of thrushes might have 

 been listened to on a calm mild spring evening, not more than two or 

 three at far distant stations could now be heard ; of our familiar attendant 

 the red-breast, few survived to pour forth their impassioned lay, as the 

 diminished numbers of this favourite bird, even after the increase of the 

 year, clearly demonstrate. The same may be said of the blackbird, 

 whose mellow whistle was scarcely recognised during the spring and 

 summer ; and a like falling off was observed in regard to the wagtails, 

 wrens, and indeed all the indigenous insectivorous species, which suffered 

 to a much greater extent than the Conirostrae or Finch tribe, which, sub- 

 sisting upon seeds and grains, found, if not ample, at least a sufficient 

 quantity of food to support life in the stack and fold-yards where the 

 others were perishing from the effects of hunger and cold. But the de- 

 ficiency of the feathered tribe this year, I afterwards ascertained, was 

 not confined to our indigenous or permanent residents : it extended to 

 all those species which we call summer visitants, or which make our 

 island their breeding resort and habitat during their Polar migration ; 

 for as the time of the arrival of the various species successively occurred, 

 I found that throughout this district their numbers scarcely averaged a 

 third of the usual supply, and this falling off not confined to a few particular 

 forms, but extending to all the migratory species. The same was observed 



