256 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



the redds are abandoned. Here is another note on the 

 subject. 



December 6. — Heavy floods these three days; over thirty 

 salmon spawning in Elsdon burn — seven on one stream. 

 The Grasslees burn is also full of bull-trout, spawning. 

 On the 8th watched them at close quarters, big fish 

 working in water so shallow that tails and dorsal fins 

 showed clear above as they "howked" in the gravel, 

 rolling over and over and wallowing like porpoises in the 

 narrow stream. Below, on either flank, hung trouts alert 

 to snap up any jetsam or flotsam ova swept down by the 

 stream, or to rush in to a wholesale feast should the 

 spawning fish be disturbed. 



During the four months comprised within the limits 

 of this chapter — -that is, November, December, January, 

 and great part of February — bird-life is absolutely 

 stationary, as much so, at least, as its physical economies 

 ever permit. There is neither ebb nor flow in the feathered 

 tide. Birds have now all reached their permanent winter- 

 quarters, and there they settle down, practically for four 

 months, subject only to such purely local movements as 

 may be dictated by climatic or other transient causes. 



To take as a single example, that erratic species, the 

 snipe. The following figures based on records kept 

 during ten years, show the relative abundance of snipe 

 in each autumnal month ; together with, inferentially, the 

 extent of their seasonal movements : — 



Snipes killed 



The slight reduction in December is due merely to the 

 greater prevalence of snow during that month. For snow 

 at once drives snipes from the moors to the lowlands — say 



