192 MR SELBY ON THE WINTER OF 1838. 



January 21. at 2° F. Early in March the frost abated in rigour, and 

 a slow thaw began to melt the vast accumulation of snow which had 

 been drifted into the lanes, hollows, and hedge banks by the severe 

 and oft-repeated gales that had occurred during the two months 

 frost. Up to this period none of those indications which we had 

 been accustomed to hail as the harbingers of spring had been 

 observed, such as the song of the missel-thrush and the mavis, the 

 cooing of the ring-dove, or the pipe of the golden plover, which 

 in usual seasons seldom fail to greet our ears with their welcome 

 notes before Februarj^ has advanced into the second week. On 

 referring to my notes I find it was not till the 5th and 6th of March 

 that the peawit and golden plover were first seen, or the carol of the 

 lark heard ; on the 7th the thrush and missel-thrush were in song, 

 being a period later by nearly a month, than any I can find in a 

 register kept for many j'ears past, and it was not till the 20th that the 

 congregated flocks of the ring-dove began to disperse, or that they 

 were heard cooing and exhibiting that peculiar flight which distin- 

 guishes the species at the time of pairing, and which in ordinary years 

 seldom fails to occur before the 8th or 10th of February. It was now 

 that the effects of this long-continued storm, so remarkable for the 

 great degree of cold that accompanied it, became fully apparent ; for 

 instead of the host of birds that were wont to resort to our groves and 

 plantations at this season, and whose " wood-notes wild " used to greet 

 us in every direction, a few individuals or a solitary pair alone were to 

 be seen, and where, a season or two before, a united concert of a 

 multitude of thrushes might have been listened to on a calm mild 

 spring evening, not more than two or three at far distant stations 

 could now be heard ; of our familiar attendant the red-breast, few 

 survived to pour forth their impassioned lay, as the diminished num- 

 bers of this favourite bird, even after the increase of the year, clearly 

 demonstrates. The same may be said of the blackbird, whose mellow 

 whistle was scarcely recognised during the spring and summer ; and a 

 like falling off was observed in regard to the wagtails, wrens, and 

 indeed all the indigenous insectivorous species, which suffered to a 

 much greater extent than the Conirostrse or Finch tribe, which, sub- 

 sisting upon seeds and grains, found, if not ample, at least a sufficient 

 quantity of food to support life in the stack and fold-yards where the 

 others were perishing from the effects of hunger and cold. But the 

 deficiency of the feathered tribe this year, I afterwards ascertained, 

 was not confined to our indigenous or permanent residents : it extended 

 to all those species which we call summer visitants, or which make our 

 island their breeding resort and habitat during their Polar migration ; 

 for as the time of the arrival of the various species successively 

 occurred, I found that throughout this district their numbers scarcely 

 averaged a third of the usual supply, and this falling off not confined 

 to a few particular forms, but extending to all the migratory species. 



