600 Effects of recent Winter Storms. By Robt. Gray. 



about the middle of February. On tbe sheltered slopes of the 

 hills above Tighnabruaich, the number of birds was quite re- 

 markable, and this invasion occurred when the storm in other 

 parts of Scotland was regarded as the worst of the season up to 

 that date. In other places, as for instance in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Glasgow, the flocks of larks especially might 

 well be called immense. In one case a field of five acres on which 

 but a sprinkling of snow had fallen, was seen to be literally cov- 

 ered with these birds — the surface of the ground being completely 

 hidden. Some one curious in figures made the calculation that 

 one or even two hundred thousand larks were far within the 

 actual numbers in the field. 



About the same time there appeared in the neighbourhood of 

 Edinburgh, very large flights of larks and snow buntings. These 

 flocks were noticed in some instances close to the city, the bunt- 

 ings especially, having attracted considerable attention through 

 the strikingly variegated appearance of their plumage while in 

 flight. 



During a thaw, more or less complete, which occurred about 

 the close of January, proofs were not wanting, as the snow 

 melted, of the frost's terrible severity. In the Botanic Gardens 

 at Edinburgh the dead bodies of many birds were found — 

 blackbirds, thrushes, redwings, and chaffinches. The greatest 

 mortality, however, occurred among wood pigeons and rooks. 

 Numbers were found dead, and others were observed to be so 

 sickly and emaciated, as to be quite unable to save themselves 

 from the clutches of the cats which infest the enclosures. 



In the island of Eaasay, cartloads of dead rabbits were found 

 after the snow had disappeared, — a mortality which must have 

 occurred in many other places besides, although no actual records 

 have reached me. 



One of the most singular results of the extraordinary and per- 

 sistent frost which had been experienced in the month of January, 

 was the destruction of littoral shell fish on different parts of the 

 coast. Enormous quantities of Solen Siliqua and Madra stuUorum 

 were thrown upon the beach near Stornowayin the outer Hebrides, 

 and also at Nairn on the shores of the Moray Firth. The same 

 thing occurred near the mouth of the Tay, on the Forfarshire 

 side, the species that suffered most in the locality being the com- 

 mon mussel {Mytilus eduUs). There can be no doubt that in the 

 three instances I have given, these moUuscs — millions of which 



