Effects of the Winter of 1878-9, by James Hardy. 131 



common wrens in prying into the hollows of stone walls for lurking spiders. 

 At night they roosted in the whin- bushes. The next largest constituent of 

 this swarm, was the grey flycatcher. There were three or four blackcap 

 warblers also ; several sedge-warblers in full song ; some redstarts ; one or 

 two whitethroats ; and a considerable contingent of wheat -ears. Martins 

 had increased in numbers also at their sea-side residence. Two swifts were 

 seen. May 23, most of yesterday's arrivals had left, there remaining a pair 

 of flycatchers, a pair of wood wrens, not observed then, a few whitethroats, 

 a sedge-warbler, as well as some of the wheat-ears. Swallows took up their 

 residence. May 24th, grey slugs very numerous in the fields. May 26th, 

 more flycatchers had arrived keeping in little bands of seven or eight. 

 Another company of wheat- ears, of from eight to ten, in a very tame 

 condition were • also present. They had come with a south wind, the air 

 having become quite mild. 



On May 27th, the first swallow had got up to the Lammermoors at 

 Boonsley above WoodhaU, East Lothian. A shepherd here remarked to me : 

 "There's something no richt wi' the birds the year— there's the lav'rocks — 

 they're no singin'— they get up into the air as they used to do, but they've 

 nae sang, naething ye may say but theii- winter chirp." 



May 28th. Wheat-ears had mostly left. June 2. In a dean near 

 Oldcambus, where the fieldfares had fallen so numerously, an ivy bush was 

 quite loaded with full-grown berries ; and I noticed the same circumstance 

 at Houndwood house ; not ©ne of them had been touched by the birds. Slugs 

 and snails were extremely numerous on clover leas, and almost everywhere. 

 In gardens they ate up lettuces, and the flowers iu greenhouses. The grubs 

 of Tipula oleracea were very noxious to oats on several farms in the neigh- 

 bourhood ; and many were turned up by the turnip hoers. The frost had 

 had no effect on them. A cold, moist, damp season appears to increase their 

 vitality. 



June 5, a late arrival of grey-wagtaUs, two females, and a male. 



Now in the spring of 1880, thrushes, blackbirds, missels, wrens, redbreasts, 

 tits of aU kinds, gold-crests, grey linnets, and stone-chats have never re- 

 covered their old numbers, and several of them are extremely scarce. 

 Yellow-hammers and hedge-sparrows are as plentiful as ever ; and the same 

 may be said of the house-sparrows ; but there were fewer greenfinches and 

 chaflSnches during this last winter, and only a limited attendance accom- 

 panied the sower, to pick up the uncovered grain. It will probably be some 

 time before the blank becomes refilled by migrants, or restocked by those 

 that have remained attached to the locality. "We have had no fieldfares or 

 redwings during winter of 1879-80. A mere handful were noticed on Nov. 

 13th, but they never returned. 



With regard to vegetation, so long as the snow covered the majority of 

 plants, they were pretty safe ; but the cold was so lengthened and extreme, 

 that several perennials that I had planted in the borders during autumn, 

 which had to depend only on the strength of their own vitality, never grew. 

 On Feb, 1, whins had not been touched by frost, and were full of forming 

 blooms. On the snow departing from the garden on Feb. 6, Penstemons and 

 Antirrhinums were withered to the roots, and they nearly all perished in 



