Effects of receM Winter Storms. By Kobt. Gray. 499 



Although several heavy falls of snow had taken place in De- 

 cember, it was not until the first week of January that the effects 

 of the weather began to be shewn. Later in the month, viz., 

 about the 20th, sea-gulls, which in all my lengthened experience 

 I have never seen put to straits, succumbed to the frost. Intel- 

 ligence reached me that these birds were dying in hundreds on 

 the banks of the Mersey near Liverpool, owing to the frozen 

 state of the mud banks from which their food had been largely 

 derived, and on further enquiry I found the information to be 

 only too true. About the satne time it was discovered that on the 

 banks of Loch Lomond, wild ducks, grebes, coots, and other 

 waterfowls were dying in considerable numbers, and that hun- 

 dreds of rabbits were frozen to death all along the shores of the 

 Loch. Fish, ranging from 10 to 20lbs. in weight, were also ob- 

 served to have been killed in a similar manner in the river Leven 

 which runs out of the Loch. 



After the storm had continued without a break for about three 

 weeks, it became evident even to the most careless observer that 

 birds had to a great extent disappeared from districts where its 

 effects had been most felt, and that to such as had remained the 

 season had proved to be one of unparalleled severity. General 

 sympathy, however, became awakened in their favour, and in 

 many places a clearance of the snow was made and food placed 

 within their reach. Odd assemblages of species were then seen : 

 rooks, pigeons, partridges, bramblings, snow buntings, gallinules, 

 and sea-gulls, all joining in the half starved crowd. I often 

 wondered what had become of the more familiar species —larks, 

 blackbirds, thrushes, and such birds as are always to be found 

 in the neighbourhood of towns, villages, and farm yards, and I had 

 even ventured to suggest in my note books that they had suc- 

 cumbed to the frost. But I afterwards found that I had come to 

 a wrong conclusion, and it was with no small satisfaction that I 

 learned from several correspondents, that in the more sheltered 

 districts, where the snow fall had been but trifling, small birds of 

 all kinds were not only plentiful, but that a very large increase 

 in their numbers had been observed — records which show that 

 the birds had gathered into flocks and wandered about in search 

 of both food and shelter, or in other words, that local migrations 

 had taken place. Thus in some parts of Argyleshire, notably in 

 the Kyles of Bute, large flocks of larks, pied wagtails, meadow 

 pipits, blackbirds, and thrushes, suddenly made their appearance 



