2G0 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



bright plumage, is a conspicuously handsome object in the 

 wintry landscape, and a pair of these, perched on tall hem- 

 lock or thistle, and busily shelling out the seeds when all else 

 is deep buried in snow, are one of the features of the season. 

 The Great Grey Shrike is a winter migrant that should 

 not be entirely omitted, though I have only two records 

 of it ; one on October 20th, 1876, the other at the end of 

 March, 1873, both at Silksworth in Durham. A Lesser 

 Shrike was shot near Whitby, September 20th, 1905. 



(2) December. 



Winter on the highlands is not always mild and open. 

 December in average seasons will bring the snow in greater 

 or. less quantity; though really severe storms only recur 

 at wider intervals. Looking" back over a series of decades, 

 several of those phenomenal winters stand out pro- 

 minent in the vistas of the author's memory' — winters 

 when storm followed on storm till the hill-country lay 

 buried feet deep under curving wreaths and mountainous 

 drifts of snow. The single-line track that traverses the 

 Border moorlands— often with a belated train thereon 

 — will be enveloped in a single night, blocked at a 

 dozen points, with its cuttings levelled up solid. Though 

 snow-ploughs and the notable energies of the North 

 British Company effect a clearance of their line ; yet the 

 open roads beyond, leading to distant hamlets among the 

 hills, may remain closed for days or weeks — traffic and 

 communication interrupted, and, if not suspended, at least 

 diverted to roundabout routes. 



Stern though they be, yet such times and such scenes 

 possess a beauty of their own and a charm that endures in 

 memory. Than the great hills, thus newly enveloped in 



