190 MR SELBY ON THE WINTER OF 1838. 



of Podicej)s rubricollis, far from a common species, I saw several 

 instances. Many specimens of the different Colymbi (divers) were 

 also shot, and wild-ducks, wigeons, brent geese, scaup-ducks, pochards, 

 tnf ted-ducks, and golden-eyes, were very plentifid. Upon the southern 

 coasts of England an equal or even greater influx of water-fowl took 

 place, and the destruction as may be conceived, was comparatively 

 great. In Hampshire, I am informed, that a noble sportsman, who 

 rented a small part of the coast expressly for the shooting of wild-fowl, 

 killed during the storm, the extraordinary number of 515 head of 

 various kinds, among which were thirty-seven swans. This warfare 

 upon the aquatic tribe continued for six or seven weeks, and it was 

 not till the middle or latter end of March, that the wild-fowl began to 

 shift their quarters, or yield to that influence which directs their 

 migratory movements to the higher latitudes on the first approach of 

 spring. Before a thaw took place, many of our hardy indigenous and 

 resident land birds also suffered from the intensity of the frost and 

 the want of food ; partridges and pheasants were found dead in every 

 direction, and even the hardy muirfowl upon the higher grounds were 

 many of them frozen to death. In Edinburgh, I am informed, that 

 for weeks, after the first ten days of the storm, baskets full of partridges 

 and other game were brought to the poulterers, which had died or 

 had been caught in a dying state, and when taken into the hand were 

 found so reduced as to be a mere collection of bones and feathers. 

 Eour-footed game also did not escape with impunity, and during a 

 great part of the storm, their only food, in this district, was the bark 

 and twigs of such underwood and young trees as appeared above the 

 snow. But it was not in those districts alone in which the snow lay 

 deep upon the surface, that animal life suffered from the severity of 

 the season, for I find that in Dumfriesshire and other parts along the 

 western coast where the fall of snow was very trifling, and scarce 

 whitened the surface, great mortality nevertheless prevailed amongst 

 the feathered race, all access to food having been as effectually pre- 

 vented by the stony hardness of the earth, as it was where the hoary 

 covering hid every thing from view. 



We now turn to tlie effects of the frost upon the vegetable fibre, 

 and here we find evidences of its intensity equally striking, and as 

 fatally injurious to certain plants, as it was to animal life. In this 

 district its severity was plainly demonstrated by the appearance of our 

 hardy native, the common whin ; this shrub, wherever fidly exposed, 

 or in so far as it remained uncovered by the snow, was completely 

 destroyed, for a proof of which I have only to evidence its unsightly 

 appearance at the present moment. Tlie common bay and Portugal 

 laurels also suffered severely whenever exposed to the south-east blast, 

 and many of them still remain in a dubious state of existence. The 

 laurustinus, which had fiowered and grown luxuriantly for many 

 years past in this district, has most of it been destroyed to the root j 



