166 
OAT FROZEN. 
the wing, had a white circle round their neck like a 
collar, which was at last discovered to he a regular 
coating of frozen breath, that had thus collected 
on the feathers, as it escaped from the bird's mouth. 
But a still more curious instance, and very similar 
to that of the Kites, occurred near Windsor. One 
morning a person was employed in a yard adjoining 
to his house, when his attention was attracted by 
the growling of his cat, who seemed to be in violent 
agitation, though confined to the spot on which she 
stood. On examining the cause of her distress, it 
appeared that she had been making her breakfast 
on some offal scraps of meat, which had been thrown 
there ; and the place being wet, and the ther- 
mometer at the time being fifteen degrees below 
freezing, her feet had actually frozen to the ground, 
and a minute or two elapsed before she could extri- 
cate herself from her unpleasant situation. One 
other instance we have met with, which is stated by 
the writer to be a positive fact, and as in our view 
of the case it is by no means unlikely to have oc- 
curred, we give it. A peasant, in the mountainous 
part of the South of France, observing a great num- 
ber of wild ducks settled on the ice of a small river 
that was frozen over, fired into the midst of them, 
and was surprised to find that not one of them took 
to flight. On going up, he found, that owing to the 
severity of the frost, they were not only completely 
fastened to the ice by their feet, but that nearly one 
half were frozen to death. The above anecdotes 
will appear less improbable, when we consider how 
rapidly, under favourable circumstances, even in our 
comparatively temperate winters, ice is formed, and 
