Migration of Birds, <Lx. By Dr Charles Stuart. 575 



labourer mast look with dismay at the snowstorm which stops his work 

 and wages, and reduces his dietary to little beyond dry bread and tea. 

 The 8th December was ushered in by a considerable gale. The barometer 

 was seen to be very low, 28.2° at 10 a.m. There had been both snow and frost 

 during the night. The mercury fell ominously all through the day, till a 

 storm seemed imminent. At 7.30 p.m., the mercury marked 27.7°, the wind 

 being S.E., veering to east and then north. After dark there was a down- 

 pour of rain or sleet for three hours, after which it cleared, the night being 

 tolerable. The barometer has never been so low since the 26th January 

 1884, when it marked 27.6°., and at West Foulden, Berwickshire, and 

 Ochtertyrein Perthshire 27-3' ! These are the lowest recorded markings 

 in any part of the world. Strange to relate on this occasion, the 8th 

 December, we seemed to a certain extent to be out of the cyclone, which 

 the newspapers describe as being most violent on the Welsh coast between 

 Anglesea and Holyhead. Any observer could not fail to be suspicious, and 

 apprehensive of some serious convulsion of nature. Our great wind storm 

 of October 1881, which caused more damage than anyone ever recollected, 

 did not blow when the barometer was as low as it marked on Wednesday 

 the 8th December, the lowest reading then being 28.4°. Every one felt 

 thankful that on this occasion we escaped the extreme violence of the storm, 

 for although the weather continued far from settled, there have been none 

 of the awful scenes which in former years were witnessed on our rock- 

 bound east coast. My spaniel flushed a Woodcock at the edge of the 

 spruce wood at Whitemire, parish of Edrom, on the 18th December ; and on 

 the same day saw a Buzzard at the Pistol Plantings, Blackadder. This is 

 probably the same bird Mr Muirhead saw at Paxton. I was attracted at 

 first by the stretch of wing : and seeing it alight on the upper part of a 

 tall silver fir on the side of the wood, and just outside of the wood. 

 Upon nearer approach it rose, and with a heavy owl-like flight disappeared 

 among the trees. Since writing this Mr Thomson, gamekeeper, Kimmerg- 

 hame trapped one of these birds, on the 12th November at that place, near 

 the public road, beside a rabbit which it had killed, and it is now in the 

 hands of Mr Aitchison, Duns, for preservation. The Blackadder keeper 

 informs me that he has twice seen the Buzzard at the Pistol Plantings, ao 

 that there can be no doubt that several specimens have been driven over 

 from Scandinavia, about the same time by stress of weather. They seem 

 all to have entered the county about Berwick, the great highway for the 

 entrance of migratory birds, as they have an objection to surmounting tho 

 difficulties of our rock-bound coast, and choose the easiest route inland. 

 The birds alluded to were observed in a well denned line parallel to the 

 Tweed. 



