EXTERMINATION IN ANIMAL LIFE. 343 



of existent species of the North Atlantic coast.* A deep sea 

 Crustacean, Munida iris, was also very common on the Tile-fish 

 grounds, so numerous, in fact, that it gave character to the 

 ground ; yet when the U.S. Fish. Co. steamer 'Albatross' went 

 over the same ground two years later, the hauls of the beam- 

 trawl showed that this species, formerly so abundant, was 

 wanting. It is interesting to note that the bottom Crustacea 

 suffered at the same time as the Tile-fish, and probably from the 

 same cause, t 



Sudden, severe, and protracted gales of wind are destructive 

 to animal life. Birds by these agencies are frequently blown out 

 to sea, and must perish in this manner in considerable numbers. 

 Many such observations have been, and are still, recorded in the 

 ' Zoologist.' An excellent account of this destructive agency in 

 Scotland has appeared from the pen of Mr. W. Evans. In October, 

 1898, a severe easterly gale set in on the 14th of the month, and 

 but for a temporary lull on the 16th continued without cessation 

 till the morning of the 19th. A natural result of so protracted 

 a gale from the direction of the open ocean was, of course, an 

 exceptionally heavy sea in the Firth of Forth. Mr. Evans, 

 searching for the effects of this gale, gives a graphic and detailed 

 account of the destruction in animal life he found on the shores 

 and beaches. Hundreds of the Cat- or Wolf-fish (Anarrhichas 

 lupus) were cast up on the beach in the neighbourhood of North 

 Berwick. On October 26fch no fewer than two hundred and 

 four were counted between the harbour and a point opposite the 

 island of Fidra. The majority of those seen were from two to 

 three feet in length. No forms of life fared worse than some of 

 the Lamellibranchs. "Whole colonies of certain species must 

 have been literally ploughed up and swept bodily away by the' 

 terrific ground swell, and after much tossing to and fro deposited 

 in a dead or dying state on the gently sloping beach." t Sir 

 H. Maxwell relates that during a " mighty gale " which visited 

 Scotland on December 22nd, 1895, thousands of Rooks perished. 

 They were killed by fallen trees, or blown from their roosts and 

 dashed against the swaying boughs. From a rookery in Lord 



* Cf. Goode & Bean, ' Oceanic Ichthyology,' p. 288. 



f Benedict, ' Proc. U.S. Nat. Hist. Mus.' voL.xxvi. p. 245 (1902). 



| ' Ann. Scott. Nat. Hist.,' 1899, pp. 6-11. 



