THE AUK AND GADWALL. 95 



to appreciate the comforts of a bright and hlazing fire within doors. 

 "Winter, in short, has fairly set in ; and we must just battle with 

 its inclemencies as best we may until a more genial season has come 

 round. And an unusually inclement and severe winter is this 

 likely to prove. Our lochs and estuaries are swarming with Arctic 

 sea-fowl, that already venture quite close to the shore, and seek 

 their food in the most sheltered bays, a sure sign that much cold 

 weather, with heavy gales from the north and north-west, cannot 

 be far away. Among these web-footed visitors -from the far north we 

 have observed two that are extremely rare on our part of the west 

 coast, even in the severest winters. One of these is the ratch or 

 auklet {Alca alle, Linn.), a very pretty little black and white 

 diver, the smallest bird of the genus with which we are 

 acquainted, a little more rotund in form and of a robuster frame 

 than the well-known dipper of our streams, but otherwise very 

 like it. Another is the gadwall {Anas strepera), a species of duck 

 very rare in our north-western waters — a very pretty little duck, 

 with a remarkably loud and harsh voice, so loud that on a calm 

 frosty day it reaches you over a sea surface distance of several miles. 

 We have only identified the latter at a distance by the aid of a 

 powerful binocular. It is not a difficult bird to recognise, however, 

 on account of its distinct markings, and we are as confident that 

 we have repeatedly seen it during the present month as if we had 

 it in our cabinet. And talking of birds, what does the reader think 

 the Prussians are up to now ? Annoyed at the ballooning and 

 pigeon-carrying by means of which beleaguered Paris manages to 

 keep up communication with the outer world, the Germans are 

 training falcons to be employed in coursing and capturing such 

 carrier pigeons as may be observed passing over their outposts and 

 siege works. Such at least is one item in the last batch of news 

 notes from Versailles. If the Prussians really mean this, all we 

 can say is that it is " a fine idea, but impracticable," as Hannibal 



