294 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
ate up everything. So whenever the small birds were fed the 
Rooks had to be watched and driven off. We found it impossible 
to feed the few Pheasants we have, for the Rooks ate up every 
erain before the shy Pheasants came to the sheaves of oats 
which were put out for them. Fortunately, however, the latter 
discovered a plot of Brussels sprouts in the garden which the 
Rooks did not care for, and which kept them alive. The only 
plan of feeding the small birds which succeeded was to put 
out a quantity of potatoes on the lawn for the Rooks, and while 
the latter were engaged, to put out some more potatoes, soaked 
bread, and oats near the door for the Blackbirds, Thrushes, and 
Finches, which were then able to feed undisturbed. 
On the morning of December 17th the tidal part of the 
river between Moyfort and Belleek was quite frozen over, except 
a few lanes of open water leading to the Quay (the thermometer 
the previous night indicating sixteen degrees of frost), but about 
two o’clock a thaw set in, the sky became clouded, and a little 
rain fell at 10 o'clock, the temperature rising rapidly to one 
degree above freezing. On the 19th the thaw continued, but did 
not clear away the snow, while the wind set in from the north in 
wild squalls, accompanied with hail, which turned to snow again 
that evening, covering the ground to a depth of three inches. 
Frost again set in with a dense fog on the evening of the 20th, 
by which date the snow had increased in depth to twelve inches, 
so that the birds could find nothing to eat except what they could 
pick up on the shore at low tide. It was pitiful to notice how the 
numbers of the Thrushes, Blackbirds, Robins, and other small 
birds which came to be fed, dwindled away day by day, as 
they gradually died off, while the number of dead birds (or rather 
what remained of them after having been picked by the Rooks), 
which might be seen lying about the fields and hedgerows, was 
astonishing. Amongst these, Starlings were the most numerous, 
then Fieldfares, then Thrushes, and then Blackbirds. By this 
date the great majority of Starlings, all the Redwings, and 
the greater number of the Fieldfares had disappeared. Probably 
they had gone farther south, leaving only the weakly birds 
behind. Lapwings and Golden Plovers also left the district, 
although the latter were to be seen in hundreds in the fields 
along the coast, near Easky and Finod, County Sligo. 
On December 21st and 22nd there was a slight thaw, but the 
ae. ae) 
