198 EFFECTS OF SEVERE WEATHEB ON HIRUNDINIDiE. 



SO benumbed with cold was the reason, I suppose, they did not feel the heat; 

 on the Friday morning, they were all found dead on the floor, at the bottom 

 of the pipe. I have also been informed, that, in an outhouse called the 

 boiling house, at Wavendon House, about three miles from here, there were 

 above a hundred of them collected for the warmth, where the poor things 

 remained huddled together till they died. On Sunday, the 27th, hundreds 

 of Martins and Swallows might have been, or rather were seen flying about 

 in all directions ; but you would have had a task to find either Martins or 

 Swallows alive on Friday morning in the parish. How difierent this picture 

 to what Sir H. Davy wrote respecting the Swallow ; he says : " The Swallow 

 is one of my favourite birds, and a rival of the Nightingale, for he glads my 

 sense of seeing as much as the other does my sense of hearing. He is the 

 joyous prophet of the year, the harbinger of the best season ; he lives a life 

 of enjoyment amongst the loveliest forms of Nature ; winter is unknown to him, 

 and he leaves the green meadows of England in autumn, for the myrtle and 

 orange groves of Italy, and for the plains of Africa." Query : Are Swifts 

 more hardy than Swallows or Martins ? Because I do not miss any of them. 

 I believe there are as many Swifts about here now as there were previous to 

 the 31st of May. I think their powers of endurance are gi-eater than 

 either Swallows or Martins, so that they are enabled to endure the pinch- 

 ings of hunger better than either of the others. 



The winter, and its eff'ects on the Thrushes, {Tardus musicus,) Blackbirds, 

 {T. merula,) Fieldfares, {T. pilaris,) and Redwings, {T. Iliacus.) The past 

 winter being unusually severe, and food very scarce, has killed a great 

 number of both Blackbirds and Thrushes in this neighbourhood; single 

 birds have been found dead, in numbers of instances, in the woods ; and in 

 Rabbit burrows several have been found huddled together, dead. The greater 

 part of the Robins [Sylvia ruheeula) in this neighbourhood also died from the 

 same cause ; consequently we have been deprived this spring of the pleasure 

 of hearing the music we have been accustomed to, from the number of these 

 songsters which used to frequent this neighbourhood. I have no doubt 

 some of the old gardeners will say, a very good thing too ; we can very well 

 spare them, if you regret their loss. 



Singular Hen's Egg. A few weeks ago, Mrs. G. Abercrombie, of Wavendon, 

 was much surprised, on breaking what she supposed a very fine Cochin 

 China fowl's egg, to see another perfect egg inside of it, about the size of a 

 Wood Pigeon's egg, with a shell quite perfect, and the usual dark colour of 

 those eggs. I have seen the small egg adhering to the shell myself, and can 

 therefore vouch for the accuracy of the above. 



Note on the red-backed Shrike. {Lanius collurio.) I was very much amused 

 on the 24th of May, last Spring, as I was walking in Woburn Park ; I saw a 

 quantity of small birds making a very strange noise, and could not imagine 

 what could be the cause of it ; but on closer inspection I saw a female red- 



