112 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



Enerick, also in banks behind the village of Milltown and 

 the clachan of Bullburn. 



Pied Wagtail {Motacilla lugubris). 



Found about the river sides, farm yards, and following the 

 plough in spring time. It possesses a sort of song, sweet 

 enough to the ear, but rather wanting in variety, which it 

 usually sings in early spring, while running along dykes or 

 the roofs of houses. 



Grey Wagtail {Motacilla sulphurea). 



Common enough at one time, but not so plentiful of late. 

 This may perhaps be accounted for by the extreme severity 

 of the winters of 1879 and 1880, which may have killed out 

 those birds that did not migrate southwards. 



Ohs. — Having mentioned those winters, I would like to 

 remark here that the effects were so disastrous to the native 

 birds as hardly to be credible unless one had witnessed them. 

 Last spring (1881), before the migrants arrived, in many 

 parts of the Glen there was scarcely a bird to be seen ; 

 thrushes of all kinds, siskins and redpoles, seemed to have 

 been destroyed. The only birds which apparently had 

 weathered the storms were the sparrows and chaffinches, 

 and even these were greatly diminished in numbers. One 

 could walk through woods and hardly ever hear a chirp, 

 whereas in former years the whole country side was swarm- 

 ing with songsters. Snow buntings were so pushed by 

 hunger as actually to come down to the back parts of the 

 villages in the low grounds, and fraternise with the sparrows; 

 blackbirds sat on the trees about the hamlets, puffed out into 

 round, ball-like forms, watching for any chance morsel that 

 might be thrown out ; robins also took up their position on 

 the palings which enclosed the little patches of garden 

 ground — and both birds were so tame and desperate with 

 famine that nothing short of stones thrown at them would 

 make them relinquish their posts. Multitudes perished; 

 and this need excite no wonder, as for several mornings the 

 thermometer registered six, and even as low as twelve, 

 degTees below zero, Fahrenheit. The only birds which 



