THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 764.— February, 1905. 



WINTER NOTES FROM LLEYN. 

 By 0. V. Aplin, F.L.S. 



I spent a fortnight at the end of January and in the early part 

 of February, 1903, at Pwllheli, devoting my whole time to walk- 

 ing and driving about the country looking for birds. With the 

 exception of a few days, the weather was dull, heavy, and cloudy, 

 with a leaden sky, and it was often very dark. This cloudy 

 weather is, I am told, usual in winter. The day after I arrived 

 was stormy from the S.W., with sunny intervals. It blew a gale 

 at night, and at midnight the wind flew into the N.W., and the 

 next morning all the distant Carnarvon mountains were white 

 with snow low down their sides. There was even some snow on 

 the Rivals, but it soon wasted. We had a clear cold day, sunny, 

 with showers of hard snow. At night violent hail, which I 

 thought would have smashed my windows, and heavy thunder 

 and lightning. But this seemed to be the last effort of winter. 

 The next day was delightfully sunny, and it was pleasant to 

 lunch out of doors. As we got into February everyone seemed 

 to anticipate nice weather, and to consider that mild spring 

 days might be expected. Spelh of hard weather do come to 

 Lleyn, but they are rare and exceptional, and it seemed evident 

 that the degree of severity was never very great, nor the frosts 

 of long duration. A fortnight's frost had been experienced 

 about the New Year. More often than not during my stay it 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. IX., February, 1905. E 



