JOTTINGS FROM MY NOTE-BOOK. 245 
were up on the wing to a greater or lesser height, according to the 
amount of apprehended danger; but as soon as they found that 
there was nothing to fear, they were down on the ground again, to 
finish what they had left. Sometimes a Crow or two joined the 
company, but their procedure was different ; they alighted a little 
way from the tempting food, and walked to it with much caution, 
watching, as they stepped forward, that no danger was near. They 
did not care for a small morsel ; but if a big bit could be got at, 
they grabbed it and made off. 
The Gulls did not dispute the right of the Crows to share in 
the feast ; they rather appeared to be on good terms with them. 
This might arise to some extent from the hurry that all were in 
to get the most they could of what was fast disappearing. When 
the ground was cleared of what had been spread for them, some- 
times a Gull or two would stay behind and search for any remain- 
ing bits. 
As the small birds could not cope in the scramble with their 
larger neighbours, they came in afterwards for a share of what 
the Gulls had failed to pick up. They were chiefly Sparrows and 
Starlings, and they seemed to be on good terms with each other. 
The Starlings would go about their business in a civil kind of way, 
eager to pick up what they could get, and allow others to do the 
same. A couple of Blackbirds, and occasionally a Thrush or a 
Chaffinch, would come to share what was agoing. The Robin 
seldom came, and he was not welcome when he did come, being 
pugnacious, and showing a desire to have all to himself. That 
the Gulls do not find their food in the sea so abundantly in 
winter as they do in summer months may be due largely to the 
cold preventing it from coming so abundantly to the surface. 
The sea at a short depth is seldom with us under 40° Fahr., but 
the air in the time of frost is a good many degrees colder, and the 
water at the surface, of course, partakes much of the cold of the 
_ air above it. 
Many of the feathered tribes depend greatly for their sustenance 
during frost and snow on what they can pick up along the shore, 
and few of them neglect the low tides in milder weather, or even 
in summer, when the surface of the sea is teeming with food, 
showing that the shore contributes much to the wants of these 
birds all the year round, 
