NOTES AND QUERIES. 69 



Migration of Grouse in Winter. — We learn from several cor- 

 respondents that the severe weather and snow during the third week in 

 January caused the Grouse in Yorkshire to leave the moors in packs, and 

 come down to the lower grounds in search of food. Mr. R. Fortune writes 

 that on Jan. 21st a number of these birds made their appearance on the 

 Harrogate Corporation Farm, and in the fields along the Skipton road. 

 On the 22nd several lots were seen on the Harlow Moor and Birk Crag. 

 In Nidderdale also they appeared in numbers on the low ground, and about 

 Dacre Banks, the deep snow frozen hard on the top preventing them from 

 getting food in their usual haunts. On the morning of Jan. 22nd, according 

 to the ' Newcastle Daily Journal ' of the 24th, a large flock of Grouse were 

 seen flying over the lower part of the village of Slaley, in the direction of 

 Tyneside, leaving their native hills owing to the severity of the winter. 

 Snow for the previous three weeks covered the heather to a great depth ; 

 whilst alternate frosts and freshets bound up the surface beyond penetration, 

 depriving the birds of their natural food and shelter, and causing their 

 departure to more genial haunts. An exodus of this kind is of extremely 

 rare occurrence; the last one, it is remembered, was during the ever- 

 memorable winter of 1886. On the same day, Mr. Wm. Storey, of Fewston, 

 near Otley, wrote: — " The severe weather is having a very telling effect on 

 bird-life in the Washburn Valley. I observed to-day hundreds of Grouse 

 coming down from the high moorlands into the valley. Several were 

 observed feeding on the haws ; while large flocks of Snow Buntings are to 

 be seen on the margins of the reservoirs." See 'Zoologist,' 1886, p. 107. 



Waxwing in Sussex. — The appearance of this winter visitor to our 

 islands is most erratic. In some years it arrives in numerous small 

 flocks, which disperse about the country and find food in our hedgerows 

 and hawthorns until they are either shot or driven away ; in other winters 

 not one of the species is to be found, or at all events their appearance is 

 not reported. The recent N.E. winds and cold weather appear to have 

 driven some hither across the North Sea, and already we hear of a few 

 being met with in the eastern and south-eastern counties. On Jan. 31st a 

 little flock of six appeared in the Allotment Gardens at Rye, and two of 

 them were — almost as a matter of course — shot. Doubtless we shall hear 

 of more in other localities. — J. E. Harting. 



Waxwing in Suffolk. — A hen Waxwing was shot on a tree at 

 Aldeburgh on Jan. 27th, and sent to me, in the flesh, a few days 

 afterwards. Its crop was crammed with hawthorn berries, which had 

 been swallowed whole. This is the third January in succession in which 

 this very uncertain winter visitant has been obtained in Suffolk. — Julian G. 

 Tuck (Tostock Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds). 



Waxwing in Derbyshire. — An example of this rare winter visitor has 



