Notes on the Swallow. 
113 
young, all that remained in the nests were the legs and wing 
bones, eloquent evidence of the sad tragedy. 
In many springs the months of Apiil and May are 
visited with hail and sleet showers, followed by severe frosts' 
at night, and it is only four years ago this very month 
that a severe blizzard occurred as late as the 2r)th of April, 
which reminded one of an extra rough lilizzard in January, 
instead of which it was close upon the " merry month of 
May." The Swallows and other summer migrants were quite 
a fortnight late as it wa^ and they all seemed to appear sud- 
denly in the snow. Swallows were flying aimlessly alx)ut and 
looked three times their ordinary size, through being puffed 
out with the intense cold and starvation, for instead of flies, 
for them to feed upon, there was nothing but snowflakes, not an 
atom of food for them, and several that I saw in li'ttle flocks 
of five or six pass me, were in such a condition that they 
could not have possibly survived until the next morning, when 
fortunately a thaw set in. A friend of mine told me he was 
on a boat and saw some Swallows settle on the end of it, and 
after rocking to and fro a while dropped one by one into 
the water, evidently helpless with the cold. 
The next morning, April 26th, I was up early, and 
went out for a walk and it was really absurd to see the 
Cuckoo flying over the snow-bound country. I also saw a 
Wryneck, and caught and examined three Tree Pipits; their 
breast bones were very sharp, like a knife, hardly any flesh 
on them, and if the thaw had not set in when it did, thou- 
of migrants must have perished, not from the cold, but from 
starvation, there being practically no insect food for them. 
Young Thrushes were standing about calling for food, and 
although out of the nest and large enough to fly, they stood 
there half starved and I picked up some in the lanes and; 
placed them in the hedge, whether they survived I don't 
know. 
Now with all the inclement and unseasonable weather 
that occurs during the spring months, migrants would survive 
all the cold if they could only find sufficient food. This I have 
proved during the winter that is supposed to have just passed 
(although to-day, April 1st, it is bitter cold, with a rough 
northerly wind and the clouds full of hail and snow, which 
