178 FIELD -NOTES FOR THE YEAR. FEB. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 



FEBRUARY. 



Change of colour in Stoats — Affection of Otters for their young 

 — Roe-hunting — Attachment of Birds to their Mates — Food 

 of Fieldfares during Snow— Widgeon — Wild-fowl shooting 

 at Spynie — Incidents in shooting — Winged Swan — Cats — 

 Food of Wild-geese — Brent Goose. 



February 2d. — February is always with us the 

 most snowy month of the year. I find that, in my 

 journal for the first week of this month, during 

 several years, it is generally marked down that the 

 country is clothed in snow. The quantity of floating 

 snow and ice which comes down the river fills the 

 bay, and sends the wild-fowl to some less dreary 

 part of the country. Occasionally a golden eye or 

 long-tailed duck pitches in some clear spot of the 

 river, but is almost immediately driven out again 

 by the floating ice. In some places the course of 

 the river is quite altered, being choked up by the 

 accumulation of ice on the shallows, and the water 

 takes some new run. What becomes of the fish 

 during this kind of weather ? 



The rooks dig deep into the snow, and plough 



