Birds. 4809 



failed from exhaustion. On Newton-field farm thirty were picked up. On the even- 

 ing of the 30th swallows were exceedingly tame : many were knocked over hy boys 

 with sticks and stones. Some labourers who came over Swarkeston Bridge noticed 

 great numbers settled on the parapets and the road, scarcely able to crawl along. 

 Those that died were very poor; indeed, I knew an instance in which some seemed 

 driven to such extremities that they came and fed with some pigs out of the pig- 

 trough. A few days previously the weather had been warm, and brought out nume- 

 rous insects, which the returning cold had killed, and the swallows in many cases died 

 for lack of sustenance. This was evidently not the case with all. Upon examining 

 the bodies of several I found the feathers much cut and mutilated, and many of the 

 tail-feathers were completely knocked out; and I have no doubt such birds were killed 

 by the hail-stones which fell on the 30th, and which were driven about with great 

 force by the wind. Many swallows were found dead, floating upon the surface of the 

 Trent, and lay with their wings expanded as if they had been suddenly checked in their 

 course while flying. Very few swallows escaped with life. I never heard that any 

 swifts or sand martins died, but the common martins suffered considerably. On the 30th 

 of May a curious circumstance was noticed in the market-place in Derby. Against 

 the ledges of the windows of the New Assembly Room the martins clustered together 

 by hundreds, for the purpose of keeping themselves warm. Several which I saw fell 

 to the ground, not being able to sustain their position on account of their weakness. 

 At Chesterfield, Ashbourne, and indeed over a considerable portion of Derbyshire, the 

 destruction of these birds was extensive. In Leicestershire many were picked up near 

 Castle Donington, on the borders of Donington park, Wilson, and other places. Near 

 Ratcliffe and Holme Pier Point, in Nottinghamshire, the destruction was general. 

 Large numbers suddenly disappeared, and were afterwards found dead in sheds and 

 covered places, in which they sought a friendly shelter. On the premises of the Rev. 

 J. J. Peach, near Ratcliffe, thirty were found, and more than one hundred between 

 that gentleman's residence and the village. At Wilford hundreds of swallows congre- 

 gated on the roof of a house of a gentleman resident there, and after remaining the 

 whole of the night, and also the next day, dropped off the roof by scores in a perfectly 

 lifeless state. No wonder that these interesting little beings suffered so much, when 

 at High Oakham, in the same county, the cold was so excessive as to cause the death 

 of three sheep which had been recently clipped. Numbers of the landrail and other 

 migratory birds fell a sacrifice to the cold weather. In the parish of Melbourne, Der- 

 byshire, more than a dozen were picked up dead and very poor. Those that escaped 

 had the eggs, which they were incubating, spoiled. Indeed, the weather seems to 

 have caused great irregularity in the incubation of the eggs of the landrail. I found 

 in the same field a nest containing eleven eggs not incubated, a brood of young birds 

 just hatched, and some also about three weeks old and nearly feathered. Many broods 

 this year consist merely of from 2 or 3 to 5 or 6 birds instead of 12 or 13. With 

 partridges this is also the case in many localities, and I believe also with grouse. 

 John Joseph Brigys ; King's Newton, Swarkeston, Derbyshire, Auyust, 1855. 



Occurrence of Buonapartes Gull (Lams Buonapartii) on the Irish Coast. — On 

 Wednesday, the 14th of February, 1855, Captain Watkins, a brother-officer of mine, 

 shot a gull on the coast near Skerries, about 17 miles north of Dublin, which is pro- 

 nounced by all the Natural-History societies of Dublin to be Buouaparte's gull, of 

 whose occurrence I believe there are but two previously recorded instances in Great 

 Britain. The bird has been preserved and mounted by Mr. Baker, of Grafton Street, 



