128 
of April, speaks of the warblers just over as in a wretched plight 
from the cold ; some Eedstarts seen a few days before looked as if 
they must die, and many, no doubt, of various species did succumb. 
At Palgrave, near Diss, Mr. Einger informs me that several 
Nightingales were picked up dead, and the same thing occurred at 
the Ipswich Arboretum. Swallows and House Martins suffered 
severely from the effects of cold nights and the paucity of insect 
food, and many, no doubt, died in exposed parts of the county. 
Even after nesting had commenced, the Martins in some locali- 
ties were observed to forsake their nests, if built with a northeruly 
aspect. Though plentiful near the coast the small number of 
Swallows and House Martins breeding in our inland towns and 
villages was quite a matter of comment, and that, even, in the 
vicinity of our Broad Avaters Avhere insect food might most be 
looked for. They were very late before they left the rivers and 
marshy grounds to seek their usual nesting-places, and it was not 
till the last Aveek in May that I observed them in tlie streets of this 
city and its suburbs. The Sand Martins, more sheltered in their 
nest holes, seemed, by the numbers I saAV in autumn, to have been 
more favoured, though hard put to it for food on their first arrival. 
The Swifts arriving later escaped such privations, and Averc 
unusually noisy throughout the summer. On the 30th of August 
I counted twenty-eight chasing one another in the evening round 
the steeple of Cromer church. 
Young Eooks suffered, Avith other arboreal species, from cold and 
“short commons,” and the number found dead under the trees in 
many places Avas not traceable to gales at the time. With most of 
our Einches and Warblers, I believe, the first broods Avere either 
not roared at all or but a small proportion survived, and certainly 
one of the most marked and depressing features of bird-life in the 
summer of 1879 Avas, the absence of song. 
If such Avas the fate, hoAvever, of the birds of the uplands, 
Avhat of the denizens of the Broads and marsh-lands 1 — ground- 
nesting species, subject to the rising Avaters in spring, Avhen 
the snoAV and ice began, at last, to cliange to sleet and rain, and 
to the far more serious floods in .July Avhen all late nests Avero 
Avashed aAvay, or rendered, for all practical purposes, about as value- 
less as the surrounding hay-crop. Taking Surlingham Broad as an 
example of most similar localities I can say that, though visiting 
