4726 Calendar of Natural Phenomena, 



19. Mallards {Anas boschas) and Teals {Anas crecca) arrive on our 



waters. 

 Wren {Troglodytes europceits), song commences. 



20. Great, Solitary or Double Snipe {Scolopax major) seen. 



21. Canada or Cravat Goose {Anser canadensis) taken on our waters. 

 Wigeon {Anas Penelope) and Coot {Falica atra) arrive. 



22. Goldeneye {Fuligula clangula) seen. 



23. Common Gull {Larus canus) seen. 



Remarks.— The first fifteen days of this month have been remark- 

 ably mild, and more like the weather that we should look for in the 

 beginning of April than in January. All nature rapidly advanced : the 

 robin, which had, as usual, been singing all through Christmas, was 

 joined, on New- Year's Day, by the starling, which sang magnificently 

 in my chimney on that day, but which, however, has not continued 

 through the month. On the 3rd the song thrush commenced, pre- 

 ceding the missel thrush, which usually takes the lead in the year, by 

 two days; the tits, of which five species are here common, followed in 

 rapid succession ; and six or seven plants were already in flower by 

 the 15th : on that day frost began ; nevertheless, a day or two after, 

 two species of Veronica opened their petals, not unaccompanied by 

 other flowers; and it is remarkable that on the 18th, the earth being 

 then frost-bound, the banded snail woke from his winter sleep and 

 marched about in the hedge, two months before his usual time, and 

 doubtless soon to retire again. On the night of the 18th a fall of 

 snow occurred, which was immediately followed by a tribe of wild 

 fowl, consisting of mallards, teals, wigeons, coots, goldeneyes, and 

 other Anatidae, of which I have no authentic account; and it is 

 worthy of notice that on this very morning, when stress of weather 

 drove hither these hardy birds, the pigmy wren essayed his first 

 spring ditty. On the 21st a pair of the rare solitary snipe alighted 

 near this house ; and the following day (another fall of snow having 

 occurred in the night) the lockman brought down a fine specimen of 

 the Canada or cravat goose, w T hich I examined : it weighed 9 lbs., and 

 presented no marks of having escaped from a domesticated state, 

 although I cannot affirm that it had not done so. Other arrivals of 

 Anatidae have taken place during the latter days of the month ; and 

 the last two days have been marked by unusual severity of weather, 

 snow having fallen almost without intermission. As the ground has 

 been more or less covered with snow since the 18th, and it now lies 

 several inches, and in some places several feet deep, it has been 



