NOTES FROM MAYO AND SLIGO. 135 
navigation of the river, which did not re-open until the 28th, 
when the rising spring-tide burst the icy barrier. 
On December 17th there was another fall of snow, increasing 
in depth on the level parts of the country to twelve or fifteen 
inches, but much deeper where it drifted into the hollows; this 
fall closed up everything, and as it froze on the trees and bushes 
when falling, it made the poor birds far more wretched. All the 
Woodcocks left this part of the country, and very few Snipe 
remained, and these were afterwards nearly all shot or trapped at 
the few unfrozen springs where they came to feed. The fog was 
so thick I was unable to go down the river, but while waiting in 
my punt, hoping the fog would rise, I got a pair of Tufted 
Ducks and a Scaup with my shoulder gun; they were all 
immature males. ‘The frost and snow still continuing, nine Wild 
Swans visited us, and rested for some hours on the water just 
opposite where I keep my punt, but an easterly wind blowing 
hard prevented my launching her and following them, so they got 
off unmolested for the time. On the night of the 20th the frost 
was so intense that on the following morning all the bays 
and inlets were closed in by ice, which covered all the 
flats of the river and estuary, and as the Zostera-covered bay 
where the Widgeon generally feed was also covered by ice, and 
owing to the low neap tides was not floated off, the poor birds 
were half-starved. Large numbers of Wild Ducks lay on the 
ice all day, and although I made several attempts to get at them, 
I was unable to force the punt through the ice within shot, 
though once, after working through for over two hundred yards, 
I stuck fast when almost within shot, and had to back out again, 
much disappointed at my bad luck, for over a hundred Ducks 
were lying on the ice as closely packed together as they could lie. 
. Curlews and Black-headed Gulls now began to die off, and some 
Ducks and Wild Geese that I shot were almost useless, they were 
so thin; but most of those killed up to this date were in fair 
condition. Small birds were dying off, and some of the Rooks 
looked very weakly, though they returned to their carnivorous 
habits and were killing and eating weaker birds. I saw one killing 
a poor Black-headed Gull, and observed two others tearing at a 
dead bird of their own species. 
On the night of December 21st the cold was again very 
intense, the thermometer registering 24° of frost, and the poor 
