PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



87 



Great numbers of birds resorted to the sea-beach ; Starlings, Wrens 

 even, and Books left the inland localities. 



Then yet again, if 1892, or the winter of 1891-92, was 

 abnormal in its obvious effects upon the country and climate, 

 the summer — and indeed the spring also — of 1893 were equally 

 phenomenal on account of the great and general heat and long- 

 continued drought. The impulse given by this quite phenomenal 

 season to distribution and extension of the range of certain birds, 

 we treat of very fully under the species most affected by it, though 

 at the same time the extension of some species was quite as 

 noticeable in 1892, perhaps from varying causes, not directly 

 connected with climatic conditions. 



We have not space to descant fully upon the facts we observed 

 during the summer of 1893, but we may be allowed, perhaps, to at 

 least indicate very shortly some of the peculiarities of that season. 



The season was in almost all things from one month to six 

 weeks earlier than the average, as shown by the succession of facts. 

 Great heat and great drought were experienced in May, a month 

 usually cold and variable, and the Gowk or Cuckoo storm, usually 

 very punctual, was scarcely felt or recognisable. This storm 

 generally occurs in the first half of May. 



On the river Deveron, trout (S. fario) were in prime condition 

 in May, even near the upper sources of the river, 1000 or more 

 feet above the sea : and by the middle of June in the same high 

 reaches they had begun to lose it : this was six weeks before their 

 usual time. 



Birds themselves hatched off weeks before their usual time. 

 We found Grey Wagtail's young flying as early as the 8th of May. 



Migratory birds (see under Swift) arrived from seventeen to 

 twenty days earlier at their old breeding haunts. 



Small fruits — strawberries, etc., and wild hill-berries — were 

 quite a month earlier in ripening, and most noticeable were the 

 effects this had upon bird-life. Certain species of birds, such 

 as Missel Thrushes and Ring Ouzels, which usually descend from 

 higher breeding altitudes, to feed upon the smaller fruits of the 

 gardens in August, appeared upon the scene in June, and then 

 returned to the upper districts to feast upon the hill-berries, 



