ANIMAL DEPENDENCE ON WEATHER 55 



and numbers of birds and beasts than the east coast 

 of Scotland or Norfolk. And that is the case. The 

 place of Ireland in the Atlantic and its severance from 

 what was Continental England may account for the 

 absence of some species. But climate must be held 

 mainly accountable for the failure of introduced 

 animals, such as the brown hare and perhaps the 

 black grouse, to multiply; for the poor crop of 

 partridges, and for the scarcity of birds like the red 

 grouse, for which the heathery mountains would seem 

 well suited. Speaking generally, Irish woods and 

 mountains are curiously bare of indigenous life, 

 though the migratory woodcock, and in the bogs the 

 migratory wildfowl, find it a congenial winter resort. 

 In the same way the mainland of the wet Scotch west 

 coast has a smaller bird population than the east. 



In this country wet springs and summers seem to 

 affect most forms of animal life. In such seasons there 

 are very few butterflies or moths. All young ground 

 birds suffer, especially game. Rabbits and hares die 

 of fluke and dysentery ; calves, sheep, and lambs of 

 various ailments. Myriads of wild birds' eggs are 

 addled, or the youg birds die in the nests. Even 

 rats decrease. Fish do not thrive, because there are 

 few insects, and kingfishers decrease on the Thames, 

 because the wet soaks into the holes in which they 

 breed. Strangely enough, the only animals which 

 increase in numbers during a very wet season are the 

 most homeless of all the beasts the hares. It is true 

 that a certain number die from diseases engendered 

 by damp and darkness, but on the higher ground at 



