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effects of the recent cold upon all kinds of game. A correspondent 
of the Inverness Courier says that in Strathnairn, in common with 
other parts of the country, not a sprig of heather is visible anywhere, 
and there can be no doubt that if the snow and frost continue any 
length of time the destruction among all kinds of game will be beyond 
all precedent. Already Muirfowl are flocking in thousands to the 
low-lying grounds, and on Saturday last we noticed the birchwood 
around Craggie literally swarming with them. A farmer in Strath- 
nairn told us that one day lately, as he entered his stable, the entire 
area of his courtyard was covered as ‘thick as they could stand’ 
with grouse picking up anything they could get among the dung-heaps; 
and similar ‘ gatherings’ could be told by many other farmers.” 
Again, in the same journal, for August 3, 1867, Mr. Henry Lee, 
writing of the ‘destruction of small birds by rain,” says :— 
*« My friend Dr. Millar, of Bethnal House, Bethnal Green, writes 
me as follows :—‘ Good evidence of the severity of the rain during 
Thursday night (July 25th) has been afforded here in the destruction 
of nearly all the sparrows which congregate in our trees. My under- 
gardener picked up one hundred and twenty-four on the following 
morning, and in sweeping up the fallen leaves of to-day the dead 
birds are being found in considerable numbers. We estimate that 
more than two hundred were killed.’ ” 
Mr. EK. H. Rodd writing to me from Penzance under the date of 
January 8, 1867, says, ‘I foresaw that there was hard weather 
somewhere, although the thermometer never showed a greater amount 
of frost than one degree, which was the lowest reading here; 60 
miles to the eastward the reading was on Wednesday nine degrees 
above zero, and on Thursday only tive: so much for our climate. The 
heavy weather to the eastward has driven millions of Linnets, Star- 
lings, Larks, Redwings, Fieldfares, Peewits, and Golden Plovers to 
this district.” As I was at the time on a visit to Lord Falmouth at 
Tregothnan, most of the facts mentioned by Mr. Rodd came under 
my own observation; and I may add that the destruction of these 
birds was immense; I myself saw lying dead on the frozen snow 
hundreds of Starlings, Song-Thrushes, Missel-Thrushes, Redwings 
and Fieldfares, but none of the Common Blackbird, and noticed that 
several of the weakly birds were attacked and eaten by the Rooks, 
which, themselves in an exhausted state, flocked round the house and 
at times even approached the drawing-room windows. 
Violent and heavy gales also frequently lend their aid towards 
the destruction of bird-life, as evidenced by our shores being often 
found after their occurrence literally strewn with Guillemots, Razor- 
bills, and other sea-birds; in proof of which the following instances 
recorded in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1872 may be cited. 
‘* After the severe storm of January” says Mr. H. Rogers (writing 
from the Isle of Wight) “our shores from Compton Bay to Water- 
combe Bay were lined with Razorbills, Guillemots &e. I had up- 
wards of a hundred brought to me between the 25th and 31st, most 
of them in a very bad condition, which had evidently perished for 
want of food. Seven Ggnnets were also picked up and brought to 
