10 



JANUARY. 



ping, with half-erected feathers, upon our door- 

 sills, driven to seek relief from creation's tyrants 

 by the still more pressing tyranny of cold and 

 famine. The destruction of birds, and of all 

 the smaller animals, in a continued frost, is 

 immense, particularly if it be accompanied by 

 snow. Snow is a general informer, betraying 

 the footsteps of every creature, great and small. 

 The poacher and the gamekeeper are equally 

 on the alert, while it lies freshly upon the 

 ground ; the one to track game, the other ver- 

 min ; and thousands of polecats, weasels, stoats, 

 rats, otters, badgers, and similar little nightly 

 depredators, are traced to their hiding-places 

 in old buildings, banks, and hollow trees, and 

 marked for certain destruction. The poacher., 

 particularly on moonlight nights, makes havoc 

 with game. Partridges, nestled down in a 

 heap on the stubble, are conspicuous objects ; 

 and hares, driven for food to gardens and tur- 

 nip-fields, are destroyed by hundreds. Wood- 

 pigeons are killed in great numbers on cabbage 

 and turnip-fields by day, and by moonlight are 

 shot in the trees where they roost. Larks fre- 

 quent stubbles in vast flocks, and are destroyed 

 by gun or net. There is an account, illustrated 



