268 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol x. 



packed side by side as on a jioulterer's slab and were intact ; 

 a week later, Gulls and Tits ^^'ere at them. A living Black- 

 headed Gull allowed nie to lift it ; the creature weighed no 

 more than a Thrush and was unable to wallv. 



The species chiefly affected were as follows roughly in 

 order of mortality : Lapwing, Redwing, Blackbird, Black- 

 headed Gulb Starling, Song-Thrush, Fieldfare, Golden Plover, 

 Common Gull, Herring-Gull, Chaffinch. Besides these which 

 1 saw myself, my friends speak of having seen dead Rooks, 

 Jackdaws, Mistle-Thrush, Snijie, Moor-Hen, Water-Rail, 

 Sky-Lark, Wren and Rock-Pipit. I have also come across 

 the remains of some Coots. 



I think Kestrels left us during the hard \veather, as did the 

 Ra.vens seen in January. Carrion-Crows and the Tawny 

 Owl were constantly heard. 



Larks almost disappeared. Native birds wholly went. I 

 only saw a single Greenfinch. Bullfinches and Linnets were 

 fairly abundant and apparenth' unaffected, as were Cliaffinches, 

 save in a single instance. No species of Bunting remained. 



We were visited by Turnstone, Redshank, Curlew, Jack 

 Snipe, Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Snipe ; also by hundreds 

 of Wigeon ; numerous, but somewhat fewer Pochard, Teal 

 and Mallard. PerhajJs a score of Shoveler were in daily view, 

 but they did not always keep in flock ; nor did the still more 

 numerous Tufted Duck, which habitually' consort with Cbot 

 rather than with Pochard. Pintail and Scaup dropped in 

 for a day at intervals, as did the Red-throated Diver and 

 Eared Grebe. None of these water-fowl seemed weak or 

 suffering, but at Falmouth, the Swanjiool (Joots were pinched, 

 sitting dejectedly upon the ice, or scrambling for crumbs like 

 fowls in a farmyard. 



AH the ordinary Tits survived the frost, but I have seen 

 few Long-Tailed Tit, and no Goklcrest since February 1st. 

 Water-Rails have been unusually visible and vocal, and some 

 must have suffered, but this bird creej)s into hollow willows 

 to die and its remains escape notice. Even the Green Wood- 

 jjecker has been more familiar than its wont. 



A female Stonechat, seen on February 27th. had probably 

 survived the visitation ; it seems too early for a migrant. 

 The weather is said to have been the hardest and longest 

 cold here since the Crimean \A ar, or some such forgotten date. 



It has broken now, February 8th, but the Lap\\ing are 

 gone. Except withering remains everywhere not a bird is 

 to be seen. 



