252 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS. 



from their accustomed haunts. In this county (Durham) 

 Grouse have straggled down to within three or four miles of 

 the coast the nearest moors being thirty or thirty-five miles 

 inland and for "the first time on record" we have had 

 them in our neighbourhood at Silks worth, only some three 

 miles from the sea. Such phenomena are similar to what I 

 recollect in the severe winter of 1880-1 and some former 

 ones ; but hitherto only in winters of universal severity, and 

 are remarkable in a season of such sporadic intensity as that 

 under notice. 



On the coast, on the other hand, there has been little or 

 no severe weather ; what frost there has been seldom lasting 

 more than a few days, insufficient either to bring over fowl 

 in any quantities, or to " tame " them when here. Towards 

 the end of January I paid a three days' visit to an estuary 

 which is usually frequented at this season by fair quantities 

 of ducks and Brent Geese. The numbers of the latter this 

 year I estimated at only one-twentieth of what we have in 

 hard winters, and considerably less than I recollect seeing in 

 any former year. I must guard myself against appearing to 

 infer that the state of the winter here is the sole factor in in- 

 fluencing the quantities of wildfowl which migrate hither at this 

 season. Brent Geese especially are so strongly hyperborean 

 in their affections, that their movements are regulated almost 

 exclusively by the state of the winter and extent of ice in 

 Northern Europe, and but little, if at all, by our local condi- 

 tions, as was demonstrated a few weeks later (see next chap.). 

 Inferentially, the winter must have been unusually open 

 farther north, though I have no direct means of knowing. 

 Mallard and Wigeon, however, being fairly plentiful, 

 appeared to offer the best chance of scoring, so we went 

 afloat on about a quarter flood at five in the morning, in 

 hopes of getting a good shot at the ducks before they went 

 to sea at day-break. The night at that hour was bright and 

 calm, starlight and a third-quarter moon affording quite suffi- 

 cient light for a shot to the westward. We had some miles 

 to " pole " before reaching the favourite feeding-grounds 

 of the ducks on the Zostera-covered. mud-flats ; and, ere 

 we reached our destination, a most unfortunate change 



