356 MISCELLANEA. 



XVII . — Miscellanea . 



Effect of the severe Whiter (1878) on Birds at Dimston Hill. — 

 I fear we have lost nearly every individual save one or two of 

 the Common "Wren, Troglodytes. ITp to the great frost and snow- 

 fall in November last, its song might be heard uttered with great 

 energy and glee in every shrubbery and tliicket here. Even 

 this winter I have heard but one bird. 



Doubtless the little creatures perished in numbers in their 

 ca^'ities during the past winter, and their hearty, musical carol 

 may be nearly lost from our woodlands for several years. 



The little bii'd which was present in more than ordinary num- 

 ber with us in November last, before the first hard weather, and 

 in full song, was very late in re-appearing at all in the spring, 

 so that I thouglit all the individuals that haunt our thickets at 

 Dunston Hill had perished. 



But at last the call-note and the song were heard again, though 

 but very rarely, as if only a small remnant of the little creatures 

 had lived tlu'ough their hibernation. 



The "Wren never appears with the Redbreast, the Hedgey or 

 Hedge-Warbler, and the Blackbird to claim a pittance at our 

 windows. It never seeks human help, but is sometimes found 

 lying dead in our outhouses whither it has gone in search of 

 spiders and hibernating flies. 



AVhen a boy, and capturing Sparrows, by means of a sieve, 

 under the eaves of stacks during the Christmas holidays, I onco 

 caught five Wrens from one hole in a haystack, and at once re- 

 leased them. They evidently were roosting together for mutual 

 warmth. 



1 am still of opinion that they become torpid in very severe 

 weather, occupying cavities under the roots of old and partially 

 decayed trees, where also the Long-tailed Field-mouse often 



retires. 



Evergreens. — Tliat noble Evergreen, the Quercus il^x, of wliich 

 fine specimens for the north, and not favoured by being near the 

 sea existed at the seat of the Rev. R. H. Williamson at Whick- 

 ham, and at the Rectory there, have been killed to tlie ground, 



