NOTES FROM NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE. 373 
none.* Later in the season, on the 20th May, a remarkably 
handsome pair of the large variety + was seen by me on the 
“beck” side in this parish. They alighted on the highest twigs 
of a tall ash, a tree so common in this county and generally 
distributed that it has earned the soubriquet of the ‘‘ Lincolnshire 
weed.” This pair of Wheatears seemed very arboreal in their 
habits, as for the quarter of an hour that I followed them they flew 
from tree top to tree top without once coming near the ground. 
As late as March 21st there were about a score of Snow 
Buntings on the Humber embankment; this is a very late 
appearance. Amongst these were several examples in the 
beautiful pied breeding plumage, a dress we so rarely see them 
in in England. Well might they linger on our shores, and put 
off their flight across the storm-swept northern seas; for, from 
the 22nd to the 25th, came—for the season—four of the coldest 
days I have ever experienced; east winds and frosts, cakes of ice 
floating down the big marsh drains, and great icicles on the 
northern sides of sheds and outbuildings. 
The first familiar notes of spring came with the little dark- 
legged Chiffchaff, on April 2nd. Bleak, bare, and desolate must 
he have found the tops of the elms, for I note that at this date 
the buds on the hawthorn were not developed larger than No. 4 
shot; last year, at the same time, they were more than in half- 
leaf. After the Chiffchaff came another burst of mid-winter, 
with ice on Good Friday morning (April 11th) half an inch in 
thickness, and on the 12th four inches of snow. 
Here the first Swallows were seen on April 22nd. Three 
were observed from the Tees light-vessel on the 25th, flying 
in a south-westerly direction. The 23rd brought the Yellow 
Wagtail. On the 24th Hooded Crows still lingered in the 
marshes and on the coast, the last of their tribe, cawing dis- 
consolately to the melancholy main—the knowing birds probably 
aware that there were no birds’ nests ready to harry in the north. 
This same day the Cuckoo was heard, and Swallows had become 
numerous. On April 26th a single Cuckoo passed the Tees 
light-vessel from S.E. to N.W., a moderate 8.H. breeze blowing. 
* A very competent observer on the Teesmouth light-vessel says that on April 7th 
he observed a great many Wheatears pass: wind 8.8.E., and clear. 
+ See Lord Clifton’s remarks on this race or variety in the current number of 
‘The Ibis,’ July, 1879, p. 369. 
