WEATHER AND BIRDS. 



REV. EDWARD ADRIAN WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK, L.Th., F.L.S., F.G.S., 

 il 'icar of Cadney ; Organising- and Botanical Secretary, Lincolnshire Naturalists' Union. 



The late John Cordeaux in 'The Naturalist,' 1900, p. 32, com- 

 menting- on Mr. Brogden's S. Lines. Bird List, says : — k Some 

 birds, several of them being- quite common species, appear to 

 have unaccountably decreased near Spalding-, such as the 

 Mistletoe Thrush, the Redbreast, Hedge Sparrow, and Jack- 

 daw.' The late Mr. Brogden's List was written during the 

 summer of 1896, and never added to subsequently. The word 

 'unaccountably' is scarcely the one I should have selected 

 under the circumstances. The species named, and many other 

 of our commonest birds, decreased here considerably after the 

 fifty-nine days' frost of 1891, and were more than half killed off 

 by the terrific frost of the early months of 1895. One morning 

 during that latter storm at both South Kelsey and Howsham 

 the thermometer fell twenty degrees in as many minutes 

 between 8 and 8.30 a.m. In this parish alone hundreds of birds 

 were lying dead by the hedge sides and in the covers, the Red- 

 wing suffering terribly. In the summers of 1895, 1S96, and 

 1897 there were fewer of our common birds to be found nesting- 

 in covert, hedge, or tree than I ever remember in my experience. 

 The large sycamore by my garden gate here at Cadney, which 

 had harboured a Mistletoe Thrush nest from 1890 to 1894, 

 tradition says it always does, was without one till 1899. The 

 Jackdaws did not come back to the church till 1898 ; on the 

 25th of January this year fifteen noisy pairs were flying round 

 the tower. A pair of Rooks built for the first time that year 

 in the churchyard trees, and in 1899 there were five nests. 

 Three other strong rookeries have been established of late years 

 round this neighbourhood at Poolthorn, Howsham, and North 

 Kelsey. The Rook suffers less than most of our birds from 

 prolonged frost and snow, and these rookeries have simply 

 been formed because of the cutting down of a large wood at 

 Somerby, four miles off, where they formerly built. 



It is worth noting that the older Rooks come and take 

 possession of their old nesting-places the first mild day towards 

 the end of January, and sitting side by sick- in pairs have a quiet 

 talk about building prospects, as it w ere. They begin construct- 

 ing their nests, if it is mild, when March puts in ; w hile the 

 Winter Aconite (EYanthis hyemalis Salisb. ) is in flower it is useless 



ii>cx> May i. R 



