THE BRITISH ISLES: WINTER 1G9 



Orkney under circumstances which lead one to suppose 

 that they were arrivals from more northern localities, 

 perhaps from the Shetland Isles, where in ordinary 

 seasons they would have spent the winter. 



Land birds certainly do appear on the south-eastern 

 coast of England, after a westerly passage across the 

 North Sea, during periods of exceptional severity in 

 Western Central Europe, the birds which then arrive in- 

 cluding Starlings, Skylarks, Song-Thrushes, Lapwings, 

 and Bitterns. Some of these immigrants may remain in 

 eastern England, while others certainly pass westwards 

 to seek the more genial retreats usually to be found there. 

 Crowds of wild-fowl (various ducks and geese) also 

 migrate from the Dutch coasts when their shallow 

 waters are frozen, and seek the opposite shores of 

 England. 



The winter of 1894-95 was memorable for its arctic 

 severity in the British Isles, and in the north of Europe 

 the cold was phenomenal. This resulted in our seas being 

 thronged with such an assemblage of northern sea-fowl 

 as had not been witnessed within the memory of living 

 naturalists. This cold period (which has already been 

 alluded to in connection with British local movements) 

 set in on 30th December, and prevailed, with a week's 

 respite, until 5th March. The weather was very severe 

 from 26th January to 19th February, when even in the 

 south-west of England and Ireland the temperature was 

 10° below normal values, and in the east of Scotland 

 17° below them. A series of severe gales from the 

 north drove vast numbers of Little Auks before them, 

 and wrecked them in thousands from the Shetlands 

 southwards along the entire east coast of Britain, and 

 many were blown quite across Scotland and far inland 



