Effects of recent Winter Storms. By Eobt. Gray. 601 



were carted away — had been destroyed by tbe intense frost when 

 the tide was out. A similar occurrence took place in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Leith and Portobello, during the hard winter of 1855, 

 and a paper on the subject by the late Hugh Miller appeared in 

 the Proceedings of the Eoyal Physical Society (vol. i. p. 10). In 

 this paper the author remarks that the " wholesale destruction 

 of these species by a frost a few degrees more intense than is 

 common in our climate, strikingly shews how simply by slight 

 changes of .climate induced by physical causes, whole races of 

 animals may become extinct." 



As a consequence of this destruction of animals living in shal- 

 low water along our shores, I may here allude to the occurrence 

 in a comparative state of emaciation, of various birds which are 

 known to feed upon them. Mergansers, grebes, black-throated 

 and red-throated divers, &c., were all seen to be keeping close in 

 shore, and were found to be in bad condition. I examined an 

 unusual number of red-necked grebes killed in Mid-Lothian and 

 Haddingtonshire. Some of these had left the coast and gone 

 inland, only, however, to meet with a worse fate. Herons, too, 

 principally old birds, were obtained in quite unusual numbers in 

 an enfeebled state. 



On the 10th February a fresh storm broke out, and was found 

 to be worse than any that had preceded it, the words "terrific" 

 and " tremendous " being applied to it in the weather telegrams. 

 From some parts of Perthshire I learned that blackbirds and 

 other small birds were seen falling dead from the trees, and that 

 in districts where the previous thaw had not been complete, the 

 renewal of the storm was likely to kill every living thing not 

 under shelter. Fortunately, however, its severity was of com- 

 paratively short duration, and before a week was over the 

 ground in lowland parts at least, was again opened, and the 

 winged fauna seemed to have been relieved of their sufferings 

 for the time being, and of all prospect indeed of further danger. 



My own notes and correspondence at this time shew that many 

 species which had disappeared from certain localities had again 

 come back, and that some had commenced their spring notes — 

 the missel thrush especially being in full song. This continued 

 with occasional breaks which induced renewed quiet, and in some 

 cases despondency, until the 4th of March, when the worst storm 

 of this memorable winter occurred. The snowdrift was in fact 

 quite unprecedented, and the tra£B.c of nearly all the Scottish 



