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driving with the wind, into every hole and crevice, fell throughout 
the afternoon, and at night, as before stated, the heavily laden 
clouds discharged themselves, and added largely to the difficulties 
of traffic, by a heavy snowstorm. Abating a little of its force 
about five o’clock in the afternoon, it still blew hard during the 
night, the keenness of the blast making itself felt even within doors, 
and to sno wed-up travellers it must have been fearful. Between 
eleven and twelve on the morning of the 19th we had a fresh fall 
of snow, but the storm itself was over, though the cold continued, 
with ten degrees of frost at night. On the 21st more snow fell, 
and the hoar-frosts commenced again ; and on the 22 nd safe 
skating was afforded on the Yare, between Eeedham and Hardley 
Dyke, though the ice, generally, was much impaired by the frozen 
snow. More snow fell on the 23rd, with the wind W.N.W., and 
hoar-frosts and dense morning fogs prevailed up to the 26th, when 
a thaw set in suddenly, and the snow began to sink into the earth 
under the influence of a mild soft air, with the wind S.W., 
almost as rapidly as the ice had formed on the 15th. 
No wonder that our resident birds suffered severely during such 
a fortnight of severe weather, or that numbers, especially in the 
bleak and exposed parts of the county, succumbed under the 
combined effects of cold and hunger. Even the Snow Buntings, 
according to a statement of William Howlett of Newmarket, in 
the ‘ Field’ of January 29th, were picked up in dozens with many 
other species on Newmarket Heath and the fens between there 
and Ely, There was a strange absence of the large flocks of 
Fieldfares and Redwings usually met with in hard winters, but 
whether these, owing to the paucity of berries, had passed 
southward earlier in the season, I am not prepared to say. The 
rarity of the Thrush’s song in the following spring told its own 
tale, for no bird suffers more or sooner from cold and privation. At 
first the birds seemed to suffer rather from the deep snow covering 
their usual sources of food, than from the frost ; but the biting wind- 
frosts, especially on the 18th and 19th, told upon them terribly 
at last! By the 14th I had not only my usual compliment of 
garden birds about my “charity board,” and that close to the city, 
but Rooks and Jackdaws joined the throng, and on the morning 
of the 18th, besides the above, I counted three dozen and a half of 
Starlings, and a swarm of small birds, including four species of 
•A 
