Calendar of Natural Phenomena, 4729 



lasted, those birds which had previously been in song have intermitted 

 their notes, being doubtless too much occupied in the earnest search 

 for a precarious subsistence to indulge in those buoyant feelings which 

 induce song. This applies to all ground-feeders, with scarcely an 

 exception ; but it is worthy of remark that the busy tribe of the tits 

 (Paridte), which find their food principally in the crevices of the bark 

 of trees, have been active and busy throughout, and have enlivened 

 the plantations with an unceasing volley of sprightly notes. The 

 same remark applies to the nuthatch (Sitta europcea), whose loud and 

 business-like whistle is never wanting, for the same reason. A curious 

 effect of the unwonted keenness of the past winter was exhibited by 

 the fieldfares and their congeners, the redwings : they have performed 

 a distinct double migration. On the 2nd of the month, while travelling 

 to Oxford, 1 saw large flocks of these birds in the fields all the way 

 along; but since that day, for a space of nearly four weeks, I have 

 looked in vain for a single one. I conjectured that they had sought 

 a more southern and congenial climate, and I anticipated that when 

 the frost broke they would return ; and, indeed, yesterday (February 28) 

 they did return, and reappeared in our meadows in vast numbers and 

 in good condition. 



The month opened with the most wintry aspect that can well be 

 imagined. For the last forty-eight hours in January the snow had 

 been incessant and the nights severe ; but neither frost nor snow had 

 as yet influenced the condition of our passerine birds, and the bunting 

 (Emberiza miliaria) opened the month with his harsh note : his ex- 

 ample was followed the next day by the hedgesparrow (Accentor modu- 

 laris), and it is curious, as an example of the varying influence of the 

 seasons on different classes of birds, that at the moment I was arrested 

 by first hearing his note I was engaged in watching the majestic flight 

 of twenty-one wild geese (Anser segetum), as, driven from their usual 

 haunts by the freezing of the waters, they sailed in one long, unbroken 

 line, about 100 yards overhead ; but the birds just mentioned soon felt 

 the chilling influence, and ceased singing almost as soon as they had 

 begun ; nor were they joined by any new voices until the latter part 

 of the month. On the night of the 3rd a remarkably rapid thaw, suc- 

 ceeded by a no less rapid frost, in the space of a few hours produced 

 a curious result : every tree, from the largest branches to the smallest 

 twigs, was in the morning encased in a transparent tube of ice, which 

 glittered beautifully in the sunlight. For two or three days it con- 

 tinued to thaw under the influence of the sun, freezing again at night, 

 so that by the 6th the snow had almost disappeared, disclosing a few 



