BIRDS IN CORNISH VILLAGE 285 



place has been occupied, that each flock has its 

 own territory, where it splits up into some groups 

 and spends its short hours flying about and ex- 

 ploring every green field, and one might ahnost 

 say "every grass.'* One can only explain this per- 

 fect distribution by assuming that each unit in- 

 stinctively looks for unoccupied ground in its 

 winter habitat, and that consequently there is very 

 little overlapping. It must also be assumed that 

 at the place of assembly in the evening each flock 

 has its own roosting-place — its own trees and 

 bushes where the members of the flock can still 

 keep together and to which after each aerial per- 

 formance they can return. The flock comes back 

 to sleep on its own tree, and no doubt every couple 

 roosts side by side on its own twig. 



On the return of Spring the birds do not 

 migrate in a body, but slip away, flock by flock, 

 to reappear about the end of April In their old 

 breeding-place in the North Country, with, per- 

 haps, the loss of a few members — the one that 

 was old and died in the season of scarcity; and 

 one that was taken at the roost by a brown owl, 

 and one that had its feet frozen to the perch; and 

 was killed by a jackdaw when struggling to free 



