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of man, looking upon him as their natural protector, 

 finding something in common with him in face of the 

 inexorable cruelty of Nature, knowing full well that 

 he is stronger and wiser than they. Small birds take 

 up their abode in crowds about the farmyard. Gulls 

 devour ravenously the dry bread thrown to them. The 

 Moorhen leaves her happy hunting grounds by the 

 streams, and the Red Grouse deserts the ling and 

 whortleberry of the moor, to look for food at your 

 very door. The muddy shores of estuaries are 

 thronged by tens of thousands of Limicoline birds, 

 Ducks and other forms — Rook, Daw, Pipit, Wagtail. 



Then the snow comes, and wraps the landscape in 

 a winding-sheet. The Thrushes throng in the haw- 

 thorns. Redwings perish in hundreds in the fields. 

 Perchance the Fieldfare has disappeared altogether for 

 a time, in quest of better conditions of life. Larks 

 and Peewits, driven from the higher lands, move about 

 the country in flocks, aimless and bewildered. 



" Cauld blavvs the v*'ind frae east to west, 



The drift is driving sairly ; 

 Sae loud and shrill I hear the blast, 

 I'm sure it's winter fairly. 



The birds sit chittering in the thorn, 



A' day they fare but sparely ; 

 And lang's the night frae e'en to morn — 



I'm sure it's winter fairly." 



Ah, it is a sad time for the birds. Not the evil- 

 doings of all the bird-catchers in Christendom, not all 

 the loss in bird life that would accrue were our Wild 

 Birds Protection Act to become null and void for 

 many a year, can approach the devastation caused 

 among birds by a single severe frost. Yet amid all 

 this harshness of the elements the sweet faltering 

 note of the Redbreast may now and then be heard. 

 Sad 3^et hopeful ; dimly expectant of the marvellous 

 change to take place at the swift thaw in early spring ; 



