728 The Zoologist— May, 18G7. 



with migratory arrivals. The French partridges, as usual, bewildered 

 by the snow, were shot in larger numbers out of the fences, and in one 

 instance as many as seventeen brace of birds, chiefly " red-legs," fell to 

 a single gun : many of these birds showed the effects of the weather in 

 their wretchedly poor condition, and even the English birds, in some 

 places, appeared to suffer. As before stated, the denizens of the 

 Broads were all frozen out: the coots, as usual, betook themselves to 

 the salt-marshes and the tidal waters of Breydon, where large quantities 

 were killed by the punt-gunners. Many herons have been also killed, 

 both on the coast and the inland streams and rivers. The waterhens, 

 still reluctant to leave their haunts in the great reed-beds, have died 

 miserably from cold and hunger, or have met a less lingering death 

 from the savage attacks of the gray crows, who have satisfied their 

 carnivorous tastes by destroying all the enfeebled birds they could 

 find. In some cases also the unfortunate waterhens have been found 

 dead on the ice, frozen to the surface by their wings and tails, and in 

 others their tails have been found adhering, the poor birds having lost 

 them in their efforts to get free. The little grebes have been also hard 

 put to it for a living, collecting together in any open water, either in 

 the rivers or drains, and the snipe left us altogether, with the exception 

 of a few frequenting the inland streams, wherever the springs afforded 

 them a chance of food. 



Of our usual winter migrants, fieldfares and redwings were extremely 

 numerous, and so tamed by the severity of the season that they visited 

 the gardens close to the city to feast on the few remaining berries. On 

 the 17th of January, when the snow was some eighteen inches deep on 

 the level, I counted upwards of twenty redwings, noisily stripping the 

 rowans from the mountain ash, and, though close to the public road, 

 apparently indiffereut to the passers by, many of whom stopped to 

 watch them. About this lime bramblings and snow buntings were 

 very plentiful, and a large bunch of greenfinches in the market, all 

 male birds in brilliant plumage, proved, what I have more than once 

 observed before, that with these birds, as with the chaffinch, a severe 

 or long-continued frost brings a migratory arrival of mules from more 

 northern localities, the females and young of the year having preceded 

 them at the usual period. Siskins have been also very numerous, and 

 some forty or fifty were observed at Beswick during the first week in 

 March, later than I ever observed them before. A few pied wagtails 

 braved the sharpest frosts without seeking more southern quarters, and, 

 as generally happens at such times, several beautiful specimens of the 



