THE SONG THRUSH. 5 



The terrible severity of the winters of 1878-79, 1879- 

 80, and 1880-81, so thinned the ranks of our Berwickshire 

 Song Thrushes, that several years elapsed before they 

 recovered anything like their former numbers ; ^ and their 

 scarcity in our woodlands and shrubberies was suggestive 

 of the following beautiful verses by Barry Cornwall — 



Whither hath the Wood Thrush flown 



From our greenwood bowers ? 

 Wherefore builds he not again 

 1 Where the whitethoi-n flowers ? 



Bid him come ! for on his wings 



The sunny year he bringeth, 

 And the heart unlocks its springs 



Wheresoe'er he singeth. 



It would appear that the great deficiency of these birds in 

 Berwickshire, from 1879 to 1882, was caused by the severity 

 of the winters and springs of those years forcing them to 

 migrate to the south, where they nearly all remained 

 during the breeding seasons. Mr. Harvie -Brown of Duni- 

 pace, the well-known ornithologist, referring to their rarity 

 in Scotland in the summer of 1879, says : — " Whilst the 

 scarcity occurred in Scotland, unusual numbers of Thrushes 

 hatched in the southern counties of England, being no 

 doubt a large proportion of our Scotch population of 

 ordinary seasons."^ 



1 Mr. Hardy, writing on 16th April 1879, says :— " I went to examine some 

 miles of wood on the banks of the Pease Bum. Birds were almost absent, and 

 only one Thrush was hea.rd."— Hist. Bfr. Nat. Club. vol. ix. p. 129. Mr. John 

 Ferguson, Duns, on •2nd May 1879, observes;— "I seldom see a Thrush, and 

 several observers have remarked to me that they seem almost extinct." — Ibid. 

 vol. ix. p. 136. Mr. Scott, gardener, Ladykirk House, 11th May 1879:— 

 "Thrushes have been reduced very much." — Ibid. vol. ix. p. 138. Mr. W. 

 Cunningham, Rosybank, Coldstream : — " There is scarcely a Thrush left." — Ibid. 

 vol. ix. p. 140. Mr. Peter Loney, Marchmont, 7th May 1879 :— " We have no 

 Thrushes yeV—Ibid. vol. ix. p. 140. Dr. Stuart, Chirnside, reports :— " Winter 

 —1881-82 has almost exterminated the Common Thrush near Chirnside."— /6?'(f. 

 vol. ix. p. 554. Mr. Ptobert Renton, Fans, Earlston, notes, 18th May 1883 :— 

 "Two nests of Thrushes. This bird has not been seen here for the last two 

 years." — Ibid. vol. x. p. 572. 



2 Proceedings of the Nat. Hist. Soc. of Glasgow, 30th Sep. 1879, p. 138. 



