60 
NOTES FROM A WINTER JOURNAL. 
Mar., 1892. 
12tli.—Froze again in my room last night. Mr. Darbey 
writes—“ The poor Kingfishers seem now to be all killed, for 
I have not had one in for several days ; and I hear from 
people who frequent the water side, that now they do not see 
one where a few weeks ago dozens could be seen ; this is 
very sad.” He had received nine Herons, and Mr. Wyatt 
had two or three about this time. A Brown Owl, shot, was 
quite fat for an owl. Thaw set in early, and was maintained. 
18th.—Thaw maintained, but glass very high and rising. 
A sheep was roasted on the Thames, at Abingdon, yesterday. 
The ice on the upper river at Oxford is twelve inches thick, 
and that on the canal at Banbury fourteen inches. 
14th.—Thawing last night ; but this morning a wind frost 
(N.N.W.) set in, and as the day wore on the cold increased. 
15th.—Hard wind frost (N.N.W.). Mr. Wyatt received 
an adult Bazorbill from Wroxton. This is, of course, a very 
unusual chance wanderer from the coast. Snowstorm in the 
afternoon. 
16th.—Cold and bright. 
17th.—A sharp snowstorm put half an inch of fresh snow 
on ground in afternoon ; intensely cold afterwards. Flushed 
Heron and Snipe from the warm ditch. Hardly a bird to be 
seen in fields now. None of the Thrush tribe ; no Pigeons ; 
nothing but Rooks and Jackdaws, and perhaps a few Yellow- 
hammers, or a Bullfinch here and there. The Grey Wagtails 
forsook our frozen streams weeks ago. Half-a-dozen Gold¬ 
finches feeding in the alders here. Fields like iron now, and 
the grass fields in many places are covered with patches and 
lumps of ice, where the partially thawed snow froze. It is not 
very easy to walk over them now. 
18th.—Intense frost. Froze in bed room last night and in 
day. Bright sunny day ; air so still and dry that it was 
quite pleasant strolling about in the sun before noon. This 
afternoon while sitting with a friend I heard, to my great 
astonishment, the spring note of the Great Tit. We had 
been watching the bird searching the trunk of a walnut tree 
just before. The thermometer (about three feet from the 
ground in a sheltered place) when we consulted it stood at 
28°. Many Tits come to my food, but my one poor Thrush 
has apparently succumbed. 
19th.—Again a most intense frost last night and this 
morning. Froze in bed room. News from Mr. Darbey that 
he has a Wild Swan, shot about the 10th. I afterwards 
identified this as a Whooper (Cygnus rnusicus). It was killed 
in the Thames valley near Lechlade or higher. My brother’s 
cowman informed him that there was ice one inch thick in the 
