Botanical and Zoological Observations. 233 



they frequented the sheep-folds to pick up scraps of turnip ; 

 but these afforded little sustenance, and as the storm in- 

 creased, many crept into furze bushes and perished. After 

 the snow had disappeared, the sides of sheltered denes, where 

 perhaps they had roosted at night, were strewed with the 

 dead bodies of the poor famished wanderers. About Old- 

 cambus there were fieldfares only, but from St. Abb's Head 

 to Eyemouth, all of which coast I explored in the spring, 

 redwings were intermingled in smaller numbers with their 

 bulkier congeners. The mortality on that part of the coast 

 had been very great. Each little nook of shelter in the deep 

 ravines that communicate with the sea-side bore witness to 

 it ; the retired bay-lets and the crannies of the rocks were 

 scattered over with decayed feathered skeletons ; and along 

 the expanse of Coldingham Sands, the " disjecta membra " 

 were frequent to be seen. On the advent of the storm, large 

 flocks descended to these sands, and endeavouring to pick 

 up marine insects as the tide rose, were overwhelmed in the 

 advancing waves, which they were too feeble to avoid. It 

 must have been a sad sight — the fate of these Norwegian 

 thrushes. One might have expected on their reappearance 

 this autumn, that their numbers would have been diminished; 

 but the fieldfares appear to be as abundant as ever. At 

 Coldingham I saw also a dead woodcock, and the spoils of 

 the common thrush upon the grassy braes, then mantling 

 with primroses and cowslips as if no deadly blast had ever 

 swept across them. 



2. The Twite {Fringilla Montium). I formerly noticed 

 the occurrence of this bird in Berwickshire, from the inspec- 

 tion of some of its feathers that had been brought to me. 

 Early in October, I observed a small flock busy among the 

 upper branches of the Scotch pine, in the fir woods round 

 the " Dog-bush," above Marigold. It has a peculiar call- 

 note, heard at a considerable distance. 



3. AcM^A TESTUDiNALis. I met with this pretty limpet 

 alive in rock-pools at the extreme point of the projecting 

 reef of rocks betAveen the foot of the Coil-burn and Linkholm 

 (Coldingham). It was associated with Trochus Margarita^ 

 near the edge of the Laminarian zone, under the shady pro- 

 jection of large, loose, submerged stones. This rock is grey- 

 wacke indurated by contiguity with trap. I have no doubt 

 that this has been the immemorial residence of this mollusc, 

 and the reason why it was found there no sooner, is that it 

 never was looked for there before or overlooked. I could 



