Notes on Effects of the past Winter, by A. Brotherston. 537 



both plentiful and fat — Jack Snipes rare. Dunlins, Einged 

 Plovers, &c, from the coast, were very fat ; and a Curlew, in the 

 end of February, also from the coast, was exceedingly fat, having 

 a thick layer both externally and internally. Several times — 

 about midnight — during March the peculiar call of large num- 

 bers of Curlews was heard as they were flying, at a great height 

 over the town (Kelso). Apparently they were making partial 

 migrations between the sea-coast and the Cheviots — leaving the 

 coast when the weather became fresh, again to return when frost 

 and snow set in, from the hills and moors. None of our birds 

 appear to thrive better than the Heron during frost. I had 

 several, both adult and immature ; all were fat. Trout and par 

 were their chief feeding ; one had, in addition, the remains of a 

 large frog in its stomach ; in that of another there was nothing 

 except a number of parasitical nematoid worms, about three 

 inches in length. I suppose it had been shot before getting 

 breakfast. Coots apparently do not fare so well as the Water- 

 hens, some of the latter being very fat. In the early part of Feb- 

 ruary I had two Brent-Geese, both fat ; their stomachs were full 

 of grass-wrack (Zostera marina, var. angustifolia). They had pro- 

 bably been feeding on the " slakes" between Fenham and Holy 

 Island, where this plant occurs in great abundance. I heard 

 that there were so many killed there about that time that they 

 were selling at one shilling each. All the Anatidm, especially 

 the diving sorts — Golden-eye, Tufted Duck, &c — have had 

 abundance of food — larvse of aquatic insects and shells, chiefly 

 Physa fontinalis ; no appearance of fish of any sort. A Mallard 

 from near Gordon had in its stomach, besides the roots and leaves 

 of aquatic plants, and a large number of the shells of Pisidium 

 pusillum, a quantity of Sedum acre — a plant which I had not before 

 found in any bird. Its fresh green colour would look tempting 

 on the tops of the " dry stane dykes," and other bare spots, from 

 which the snow had drifted. Owing to the severity of the frost, 

 the lochs and ponds were all frozen over ; consequently the 

 Ducks have not been so numerous in this district as usual this 

 winter. Most of them have been obtained on the open parts of 

 the Tweed and its tributaries. Goosanders, on the contrary, 

 have been more numerous (they are common every winter and 

 spring), and excessively fat. A much greater proportion than 

 usual were adult birds. Nearly every one that I have dissected 



