286 Field and Forest Rambles. 



rapidly succeeded by a rise of the thermometer. Even in 

 twenty-four hours I have seen the mercury mount up from 20° 

 to 6o° Fahrenheit, but only for a short time. Snow does not 

 fall in any large quantity until after New Year's Day, when 

 it tumbles down in earnest, so dry and finely crystallized 

 that we can .take up handfuls of beautifully formed stars, and 

 study the theories of crystallization on the beauties as they 

 drop on the fur of cuffs and gloves. On Christmas Day, 1868, 

 flakes of snow of unusually large dimensions fell, the majority 

 averaging from three to five inches, and for half an hour the 

 air seemed to be filled with large downy feathers, slowly de- 

 scending, and the trees looked like objects in a pantomime. 

 At this season the snow bunting (P. nivalis), spectre-like, is 

 seen in flocks, the only ornithic object in the landscape, un- 

 less perhaps the black-headed titmouse, regardless alike of the 

 cold and snow, utters its well known ica-dee-dee-dee as it flits 

 among the bare tops of the elms and willows ; one wonders 

 what subsistence it can find there. After the few days' thaw 

 about the 10th, comes severe frost and more snow. The 

 average depth of the latter about this time is four feet all 

 over the country, down to within some miles of the coast. 

 Very severe weather, compelling even the indigenous birds to 

 seek the shelter of the forests. (28///.) The torn cod or frost 

 fish (G. pruniosus) plentiful in the tideways of rivers. The 

 fresh -water cusk (L. maculosa) is heavy in spawn, and with 

 the white or gizzard fish (C. sapidissimus) is pushing up the 

 St. John, and being captured through the ice." 



" February 1st. — Heavy falls of snow. Snow buntings, 

 white-winged crossbills, redpolls, and the black-headed tit, 

 with occasionally a crow, are the only birds to be seen 

 on the open. (28/A.) Male redpolls showing the red on 

 the head very brilliantly. Crossbills and Canada jays incu- 

 bating." 



" March. — Young of the winter-breeding birds are now 

 flying. Inordinate numbers of redpolls, pine siskins, and 



