1 91 7- Moffat — Exterminating Winter : Effects on Bird-life. 91 



were heard in song until February 23rd ; and it should 

 be remembered that by that time, in any ordinary year, 

 the birds of this species that have wintered abroad will 

 have returned and reoccupied their Irish breeding quarters. 

 Mr. Barrington [Migration of Birds, p. 15) has shown 

 that the first ten days of February are, in a normal year, 

 the period of maximum migration of the Song-Thrush at 

 Irish light stations ; and he has also drawn attention 

 (p. 276) to the fact that the Song-Thrushes taken at our 

 light-houses in early spring have, on an average, shorter 

 wings than those that strike the lanterns in autumn, 

 which belong (at least largely) to the Continental form. 

 With these two facts before us, it is impossible to doubt 

 that most of our emigrant native Song-Thrushes return 

 to our shores in early February, or as soon thereafter as 

 weather conditions permit. We cannot, therefore, be sure 

 that any of the birds that were heard singing this year 

 on or after the 23rd of February — and before that date 

 I heard none — had wintered amongst us. I believe, how- 

 ever, that a few — a very few — Song-Thrushes lived through 

 the visitation of the snow. 



The five species that were exterminated in this district, 

 where they were all previously common birds, were the 

 Stonechat {Pratincola ruhicola),^ Golden-crested Wren 

 (Regtdus cristatus), Long-tailed Titmouse {Acredula 

 caudata), Grey Wagtail {Motacilla melanope), and Meadow 

 Pipit [Anthtis pratensis). All five were with us, in numbers 

 not greatly below their usual winter strength, until the 

 snow-storm descended and swept them utterly awa}^ 



At any other time than the spring of the year it would 

 be rash to assert the total extinction of a species on no 

 better evidence than that the writer has failed to find 

 it. But February and March are marked by such general 



^ The proper names of this and the three succeeding species are, 

 according to the new B.O.U. hst, Saxicola rubicola, Regulus regtdus, 

 Mgithalus caudatus rosens, and Motacilla hoarula. I prefer, where the 

 difference is merely one of nomenclature, to adhere to the names that 

 are found in standard text-books most generally used in Ireland — 

 Saunders's " Manual," Ussher and Warren's " Birds of Ireland," and 

 the " List of Irish Birds," by R. J. Ussher, published in 1908 by the 

 National Museum, 



