FEBKUAKY. 



February 1st. Ground quite covered with snow, and a great 

 quantity of frozen ice and snow floating in the bay, which quite 

 prevents the wild ducks and wigeon from coming near the 

 shore. The river, too, is full of floating snow and ice. I never 

 saw so many wigeon as are just now on this coast. Late in 

 the evening I heard a peewit call as the bird rose from a field, 

 when it was too dark to distinguish it. The drake wigeon are 

 now in full plumage. 



February 2nd. Both rooks and wood-pigeons must commit 

 great damage on the wheat and the turnips. The former is only 

 attacked by the rooks, the wood-pigeons' bills not being hard 

 enough to dig into the frozen ground. I shot a large stoat 

 to-day only partially white, although two or three that I had 

 killed lately (and even some weeks back) had been as pure a 

 white as snow. The stoat, when fully changed, is the whitest 

 animal that I know. Whether the one killed to-day is a young 

 animal I cannot tell, but certainly it was a peculiarly large one. 



The collie dogs in this country kill a great number of hares 

 and rabbits. I constantly find marks in the snow of their 

 having done so. 



