Ill 



VILLAGE BIRDS IN WINTER 



Throughout the winter of 191 5-1 6, and morq 

 particularly during my three months in the hospital 

 at Hayle, from the beginning of December to 

 March, I was greatly impressed at the perpetual 

 state of hunger in which the birds exist, especially 

 the three commonest species in our village — rook, 

 daw, and starling. Little wonder that the sight 

 of a piece of bread thrown out on the green field 

 below my window would bring all these three and 

 many others with a rush from all sides, every one 

 eager to get a morsel! But the birds that live 

 most in a groove, as it were, like the rook and 

 starling, and have but one kind of food and one 

 way of finding it, are always the worst off in 

 winter. These subsist on the grubs and other 

 minute organisms they are able to pick out of 

 the grass roots, and are life workers paid by the 



287 



