Birds. 7031 



winter of 1859 ; and I reckon that two out of every three clutches of 

 capercally and black grouse were destroyed by the rainy summer. 

 All the snipe-grounds were deluged ; and, except a little duck- 

 shooliug, our season was a blank, and the high, muddy state of the 

 water spoiled nearly all the fishing. 



Luckily, however, let the season be what it may, it can never be an 

 entire blank to the naturalist. If it does not suit one bird it is sure to 

 suit another; and I have noticed one thing in collecting in the North, 

 that every season is richer in some certain birds than another ; in 

 some years we never get an egg of many of our rarer birds, whereas 

 in others we find them perhaps as easily as the commoner species. 



As soon as the woodcocks and fieldfares leave us we always know 

 that winter is at hand ; and the anival into the midland districts of 

 the first flocks of waxwing chatterers, which migrate in thousands 

 from their northern breeding haunts in autumn, passing over the 

 country like a swarm of locusts, clearing off all the mountain-ash 

 berries on their road, is a certain forerunner of the first snowstorm. 

 Last year was a bad one for rowan berries, and we had but few wax- 

 wings. On November 23rd I saw, however, the first flock ; and, true 

 to their natural instinct, they heralded the first deep fall of snow 

 although the heavy fall did not come till the second week in Decem- 

 ber, and perhaps the deepest fall was about March 22nd, when it 

 snowed for thirty-six hours without intermission. The weather 

 throughout the early winter was clear and cold, and we managed to 

 get about the forests pretty well till the end of January. The river 

 was open till December, up to which time a few ducks (I fancy the 

 young goldeneye) remained with us ; and I also saw odd flocks of 

 redwing, and occasionally a sparrowhawk, although all the regular 

 summer migrants had long left us. The sledging was good through- 

 out the winter, but the ice on the lakes was bad, and in many places, 

 except just in the intense frost, dangerous. 



The steamers were running to Carlstadt and even to Stockholm till 

 the third week in November, and the communication was again open 

 in the spring by the second week in April. 



Although the weather throughout April has been delightful, the 

 spring is backward. At the time I write (April 30th) very little 

 ploughing has been done with us ; scarcely a bushel of oats sown, 

 and not a tree is in leaf. We may, however, soon expect a change 

 (and " time enough," I fancy the English reader will exclaim), for our 

 last winter seemed to come on the 25th inst., when we had twelve 

 hours' snow and 5® cold at night. With all due fear of 'Punch' 



