and Vegetable Life by the Winter of 1838. 339 



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 wag- 

 tails, wrens, and indeed all the indigenous insectivorous species, 

 which suffered to a much greater extent than the Conirostrce or 

 Finch tribe, which subsisting 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 deficiency 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 ar- 

 rival of the various species successively occurred, I found that through- 

 out 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 

 to prevail in the South of England, as in a communication from Mr. 

 Yarrell, he mentions that the paucity of summer visitants had been 

 generally remarked by those who interest themselves in ornithology 

 and observations connected with it. The cause of this deficiency I 

 attribute to the very cold and ungenial weather which prevailed not 

 only throughout Britain, but over a great portion of the European 

 Continent, at the time these birds usually undertake their periodical 

 flights, and which, I imagine, stopped many on their course, and 

 prevented that extended movement, which, in ordinary years, permits 

 their reaching our own and even higher latitudes. That their less- 

 ened numbers arose from causes which affected them during their 

 winter sojourn can scarcely be supposed, as that portion of the year, 

 it is now well ascertained, is passed by most of them in the warm 

 region of the African Continent or in those parts of Southern 

 Europe where frost is scarcely known. Some few may undoubtedly 

 have perished on the way, or from having advanced at too early a 

 period into the North of Europe, where, in consequence of the chill- 

 ing cold that prevailed, no appropriate food could be found, and 

 thus died of hunger ; but the more probable reason is, I think, that 

 already assigned, viz. that they were stopped on their advance by 

 the peculiarity of the season, and were compelled to remain and 

 nidificate in lower latitudes than they are generally accustomed to 

 do. Of the few which did arrive, it was observed that their first 

 appearance was nearly a fortnight later than has generally been the 

 case, upon an average taken from a register of some twenty years 



