Calendar of Natural Phenomena. 4737 



nearly all dead he threw them away into the river, and they had 

 floated down and collected in the spot where I saw them. The nature 

 of the disease, for disease it is, after all, is, I believe, that of a para- 

 sitic fungus, and the only account of it I ever met with is in an early 

 number of the ' Illustrated London Almanac,' perhaps ten years ago. 

 I w T as sorry to see in the tank at the Crystal Palace, last week, a fine 

 pike lying at the bottom "furred" and dead. I may mention further 

 a remarkable fact, and one that should be known, namely, that the 

 presence of a barbel (Barbus vulgaris) or two will prevent the furring 

 offish in confinement. 



In further confirmation of what I advanced previously, I may state 

 that sheep have been remarkably prolific this spring. Those lambs 

 which the farmers designate stock or grass lambs, and which are born 

 generally early in March, or about two months later than the house 

 lambs, have been wonderfully numerous. In a flock of 300 ewes, be- 

 longing to a farming friend, 120 produced doubles, and there were 

 besides a considerable number of threes : nor is this a peculiar case, 

 but it is, I believe, the general good fortune of the breeders this spring. 

 But if the farmers may congratulate themselves on a good lambing 

 season, their complacency has a limit. There is an old adage, " A cold 

 March and a crop of wheat;" but the same gentleman assures me that 

 in examining his wheat-fields, a week or two ago, he was chagrined to 

 see that the violent and cold winds had laid bare the roots of the 

 young wheat-plants, and exercised such a deleterious influence upon 

 them, in that tender state, that he looks forward to their produce being 

 an utter failure. I trust, however, that either he is too readily alarmed 

 or that this accident is far from being general. 



All our indigenous birds, with a very few exceptions, are now in full 

 song. These exceptions are somewhat singular: in the first place, 

 ever since I have been here I have never seen or heard a single linnet 

 {Linota cannabina), a bird usually common ; neither have 1 yet seen 

 a goldfinch [Carduelis elegans), although I have once heard him : both 

 these birds are well known here, however, and I cannot account for 

 their absence, which I can only regard as temporary. But it is re- 

 markable that the blackbird, which usually commences his song in 

 February, has not yet been heard : they are often enough seen, although 

 not in the usual numbers, which I attribute to their having been greatly 

 thinned by the protracted frost : I have not unfrequently found them 

 dead. The rook also, I have no doubt, suffered greatly, and were 

 much reduced in numbers ; an establishment of thirty-seven nests in 

 one part of our grounds, which were occupied last year, is this spring 



