571 
ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE. 
By Joun Corpravx. 
Tue extraordinary cold and backwardness of the spring of 
1879 is certainly without a parallel during the last quarter of a 
century. A winter of extreme severity prolonged far into what 
ought to have been a spring, and culminating in a wet and cold 
summer, makes it almost an anomaly to write of spring, which 
season this year might almost be erased from the calendar, All 
this most ungenial weather has had the effect of greatly retarding 
and throwing back vegetation far beyond the ordinary period, 
and the observations now regularly taken at various stations in 
the kingdom, in connection with meteorological phenomena, on 
the foliation of trees and the first blooming of certain flowers, 
will, when brought together, probably result in showing that it is 
the latest and most ungenial season ever recorded in the British 
Isles. This will be best illustrated by a reference to the 
appended comparative list, showing the first blooming of certain 
familiar plants in North Lincolnshire in the spring of 1878 
and that of 1879 :— 
1878. 1879, 
Coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara - Feb. 18. March 19. 
Lesser Celandine, Ranunculus ficaria - Feb. 24. March 18, 
Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris - Feb. 24. March 20. 
Wood Anemone, Anemone nemorosa - March 16. April 7. 
Cowslip, Primula veris — - - - March 24. April 28. 
Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa - - March 31. May 11. 
Herb Robert, Geranium robertianum ~ May 4. May 30. 
Dutch Clover, Trifolium repens - - June 9. June 21, 
Common Mallow, Malva sylvestris - June 10. June 28. 
Black Knapweed, Centaurea nigra - June 22. July 14, 
Hawthorn - - - - - May 11. June 9. 
Wheat in ear - - - - - June 8. July 12. 
As might have been expected, the arrival of our spring 
migrants has been most erratic, and in many cases prolonged 
beyond the average period. Consequent upon this and the cold 
weather, most birds have nested a month behind their time, and 
then, in a vast number of instances, the first eggs have been addled 
