8 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



fieldfares, but more frequently he is to be seen about in 

 small flocks feeding on the scarlet haws that shine against 

 the snow ; for he is hardier than the fieldfare, and tamer 

 too. For when the milk freezes in the pail, you may hear 

 his little chicken-like "weeping" voice near the bottoms of 

 stacks, or upon newlays and ollunts close by the marsh farm- 

 house, whence they rise at times in hundreds, as the farmer 

 goes forth to get a hare for his dinner. But in the hardest 

 weather they too perish, and you may find their stark frozen 

 corpses under the leafless hedges, unknown, unnamed, un- 

 buried, in a strange land, far away from the home of their 

 birth, though the broadsmen tell you that in days gone by 

 the French mavishes used to nest in the reed-beds. 



