the "Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club," 1879, p. 527, entitled "Miscellanea, Extracts from Correspondence, &c." I am much indebted to Mr. Hardy for various other items, and a most interesting correspondence, besides a copy of this paper.

Mr. Robert Gray has "Ornithological Notes" (op. cit., 498), which are also useful in this connection.

Mr. George Muirhead contributes "Additional Notes on Birds in the Neighbourhood of Paxton" (op. cit., p. 503).

Mr. T. H. Gibb also contributes some "Notes on Birds in 1878-79," from the neighbourhood of Alnwick, on the Eastern Border (op. cit.)

Mr. Robert Service has a later and more complete paper than that the title of which is given above, viz., “Effects of the Weather of the past Twelve Months upon Animal Life," referring principally to the South-west of Scotland. This paper is reported in the Dumfries papers of 8th and 12th November, 1879, and will appear in extenso in the Transactions of the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, session 1879-80, in due course. I have made copious extracts from it, but those interested in the minutiae of this subject ought to consult it separately.

Mr. Hastings, Naturalist, Dumfries, read a paper on "Rare Birds with the Hard Winter," at meeting of the Nat. Hist. and Archaeol. Soc. of Dumfries, on 5th December, 1879.

The Duke of Argyll had a letter in the Times about the last week of December, 1879, on the subject, and some correspondence resulted therefrom. I am sorry I did not have an opportunity of seeing this.

Various scattered notices of the effects of this severe winter will also be found in the local newspapers and journals, such as the Inverness Courier, Dundee Advertiser, Oban Times, and others. From these sources, together with private correspondence and a small share of personal observation, and from investigations made during the summer and spring of 1879, I have taken the items hereafter mentioned under the headings "Migration of the Autumn of 1878;" "Journal of the Winter of 1878-79;" and "Observations on the various Species which came under notice;" and the whole paper is intended to include notes upon the species up to the date of reading this paper, viz., the 30th September, 1879.

I repeat, this report is very incomplete, but it is only by UNITED WORK that a LARGE amount of such statistics can be collected.

The arrangement of them is simple enough, and it is hoped that in time they may develop useful results.

To many kind correspondents-far too numerous to mention in this place I desire to offer my best thanks.

I may add here that it is my intention to keep notes from this date onward of a similar nature, and I will be glad at any time to receive the smallest contributions for future reports on Mammals or Birds. I earnestly solicit the co-operation of all members and others who desire to see an annual and full report on this subject compressed into the space of one paper.

I. MIGRATION OF THE AUTUMN OF 1878.

All accounts agree in recording the unusually early and rapid migration of birds during the autumn of 1878. They appeared upon the Sound of Iona, in Mull, fully a month earlier than usual— except Woodcocks, which arrived, as usual, about the 12th October. Snipe were extremely abundant in many localities. Here, in Stirlingshire, I never saw more than we had in the end of September up to middle of November; but from various localities an unusual scarcity of the Jack Snipe is recorded. I never saw fewer of the latter here. The very dry summer of 1878 sufficiently accounts for the crowding of our marshes with the common species, and the rapidly approaching winter, probably, for the scarcity of the Jack Snipe.

Mr. W. Boyd writes to me regarding the migration in Mull :"In the month of October I was fishing on Loch Assapol, near Bunessan. Almost every day I saw flock after flock of little birdsLarks, Buntings, Robins, and even Wrens-flying across the loch. All these birds were steering the same course, having apparently come from the outlying Hebrides, via Tyree, Iona, up the Ross of Mull, and were steering for the mainland. Fresh arrivals of different kinds of Duck rested, and then passed on. Wild Geese and Swans were seen far up in the air, all taking a bee-line for the South."

Larks, Buntings, Robins, and Wrens are all common in the Outer Hebrides. Therefore these flights observed by Mr. Boyd in all probability had their starting-point in the Long Island. They steered the same course-a south-easterly one-which Wild Geese and Swans were seen to take high up in air. But that all

the Wrens migrated from the Outer Islands is not the case, as many remained throughout the past winter in North Uist, as they usually do, as I ascertained when there this summer. The winter, however, in North Uist was not by any means so severe as in Harris, nor was the spring so late and cold. Snow lay much more persistently in Harris than it did in North Uist.

In December Mr. Boyd went out to Tyree, and he and Mr. Henderson both remarked "the extraordinary scarcity of common birds, and the unusual number of winter visitors. The whole island was full of Wild Geese, and on one fresh-water loch more than sixty Swans had taken up their winter quarters." Batches of Snipe were observed to arrive, but as a rule they did not remain long. This was after the usual time of migration, and they were at a loss to account for it. One day, however, every Snipe they put up, instead of flying a bit and settling again, rose high in air, and went off due south-east as far as they could see, right away across the sea to Mull. The remark was then made, "The sooner we go south for powder and provisions the better, we are going to have an arctic winter." They had no reason afterwards to regret that they at once acted upon the suggestion.

On returning later, many Gadwall were seen, and five were shot in one day, in an hour or two, amongst other wild fowl. All the lochs being frozen up, the Ducks had resorted to salt water, and those obtained were shot from the shore as they flew past.

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Mr. Robert Service, in his excellent paper, of which I have given the title above, writes as follows:-" Amongst the summer warblers some curious changes resulted from the ungenial weather of the summer months. The Sedge-warbler, Blackcap, Chiff-chaff, Wood-warbler, and Willow-warbler were all in augmented numbers. In the autumn of 1878 the Golden-crested Wren, Great Tits, Bluetits, Cole-tits, and Long-tailed Tits passed through the district in larger numbers than usual, getting out of the way, as the sequel proved, of the coming severe weather, with unerring instinct."

We find an indication, in the movements of birds at Tyree and Mull, of a treble migration, the earlier ones in October probably coming from the north-east-Norway, Sweden, and North Russia -being an extension of the same migration which passes Heligoland; and of a migration coming from the north-west. The absence of Bewick's Swan on the west coast of Scotland, and the abundance of the Hooper, rather points to a north-west origin than

to a north-east origin.* I have been able also to trace the Tyree flock of Swans as having in all probability passed over North Uist; and a later one from localities nearer home-the north of Scotland and the Orkney Islands. Local migrations, caused by the severity of the winter, were observable also on our east coast. Grouse were seen crossing the Moray Firth in December and January, flying southward. The inclination of migrations seems to be to reach first the coast lines or great valleys, and then to follow them; and this is especially noticeable in the autumn migration, when all our estuaries are crowded with Dunlins and Waders, but many of these same estuaries deserted by them during their more direct progress in spring. Mull being the nearest (southward) land to Tyree, the birds would make direct for it, and, according to the local winds, would hug the shelter of the land or head their flight across the promontories.

On the Solway Firth early notice of the coming winter was afforded by the arrival of vast numbers of wild fowl, and towards the end of the storm their numbers exceeded anything within the memory of the oldest fishermen (R. Service, Dumfries Courier, 25th March, 1879). Unusual numbers of sea-fowl were seen upon the Irish coasts also, as I am informed by Mr. Robert Warren, and so with numerous other localities.

Herr Gaetke, the well-known naturalist of the "Little Red Rock in the Sea"-Heligoland-that wonderful resting-place of vast multitudes of migratory birds, has reported that while in ordinary seasons the autumn migration of birds often continues until the end of February-until, in fact, it is almost time for them to return again-in the autumn of 1878 every migratory bird had sped past by the end of November (fide J. Cordeaux, in Zoologist, quoting Gaetke).

Mr. Stevenson writes from Norwich on the 11th January, 1879: "No rare birds have been killed. The storm began too early, and all the rare things went further south." Mr. Robert Warren, of Mayview, Ballina, Ireland, reports similarly. He says:-"“I did not meet with a rare northern bird, not even an Iceland nor a

*

Subsequent experience in 1879-80, however, causes this statement to be modified, as large numbers of Bewick's Swan-and possibly of the doubtful species, C. americanus-occurred on the west coast, at Islay and elsewhere. A fuller account of these will be given in our Report for 1879-80.

Glaucous Gull. I suppose they all went further south, looking for a warmer climate."

A theory was started to account for the unusual severity of the winter. The hot summer of 1878 is supposed to have loosened an unusually large quantity of polar ice, which floated further south than in ordinary seasons. This affected the atmosphere, and, making it colder, the reaction upon the floating ice prevented it from melting as soon as is usually the case. The unusually early migration of birds, and the haste with which they passed, favour the opinion that winter had set in unusually early in the north of Europe. Even as late as March, 1879, vessels were beset and damaged by icebergs off the mouth of the Gothenburg river and seaward. The Marjory was holed on the starboard bow by an iceberg, and the Frithjof, from Gothenburg, on arrival at Granton, reported that she had been much detained by icebergs in the river and at sea (Edinburgh Courant, March 18th, 1879).

We are not prepared to take up this as the natural cause of the severe winter, nor to enter into the deeper considerations of the eccentricity of the earth's orbit and deflection of the Gulf Stream. It will be quite sufficient to chronicle the facts without dipping into the speculative part of the subject. The ease with which Arctic expeditions penetrated to Franz Josef Land, and made the North-east Passage (Nordenskjöld), also indicates an loosening of Arctic ice; and the fact of an unusually fine summer in Iceland in 1879, and an extremely wet one in Great Britain. appears also confirmatory of similar causes and effects.*

* The following are among many similar reports from other parts of Europe, illustrating the effect of the severe weather, which it would be almost an endless task to collect and arrange with any hope of completeness:"THE HARD Winter and the WILD FOWL.-The Geneva correspondent of the Times writes:-The severity of the weather has brought immense flocks of Wild Ducks into the Val de Travers, where the streams, rich in trout, remain unfrozen owing to the sheltered position of the valley. To make head against the invasion and prevent the extermination of the fish, the Government of Neuchatel have prolonged the shooting season, which had already expired, for eight days. Another interesting fact in natural history is the unwonted presence at Geneva of thousands of Lake Gulls. They fly all day long in the neighbourhood of the Pont du Mont Blanc, disputing with the Swans the bread thrown by visitors into the river. The home of these graceful birds is among the rocks on the Savoyard side of the lake, and on their arrival here two months ago they were