A GREAT FROST 223 



and we may suppose that when the weather moderated 

 the surviving millions redistributed themselves over 

 the southern counties from Somerset to Kent ; also 

 that many birds had been continually slipping away 

 across the Channel. Many of our migrants, which 

 have not a strict migration like the swallow and 

 cuckoo, the species which shift their quarters or of 

 which considerable numbers remain in this country 

 throughout the year, do annually come down in 

 batches to the south and remain for a month or so, 

 in some cases until December, then vanish, and these 

 no doubt continue their journey over the sea. Thus, 

 every autumn there is a migration of goldfinches into 

 Cornwall, many birds appearing in the neighbourhood 

 of Mount's Bay in September and remaining until 

 November. These goldfinches have a brighter 

 plumage than those which winter in England, and 

 appear to form a body or race distinct from the 

 earlier migrants having their own seasons and perhaps 

 a route of their own. 



To return to the great visitation of birds in Decem- 

 ber. I am sure that very many of these, exhausted 

 by hunger and cold, dropped out of the winged army 

 at the extremity of Cornwall, and remained there until 

 the end of the cold season. At all events, when I 

 returned to the scene in January, I noticed a very 

 great increase in the number of wintering birds, par- 

 ticularly starlings, larks, song-thrushes, fieldfares 

 and redwings. The weather continued cold and rough, 

 with storms of wind and sleet and occasional flurries 

 of snow, until January 21, when the cold became 



