20 Idylls of the Field. 



over the field, where they have shovelled the snow 

 away with their strong beaks to get at the grubs, not 

 yet too safely frozen in from their attack. 



Here is a strange foot-mark : the track of no common 

 bird is this. Two toes only in front and two behind. 

 Nothing but a woodpecker has left that mark, and 

 from its small size it was not the more familiar green 

 woodlander, but one of his rarer spotted cousins, 

 whose shy ways and inconspicuous colouring keep 

 them mostly hidden from the general eye. There is 

 no record that one was ever seen along this lane ; but 

 he has left his card here, plain enough. 



There is the call of a partridge ; and yonder, far up 

 the slope, there is a line of tiny figures moving over 

 the crest of the hill, calling at intervals fainter and 

 more faint as they gain the hollow on the farther 

 side. 



Game birds make strangely different tracks upon 

 the snow. The hind-claw both of the pheasant and 

 the partridge, raised as it is above the level of the 

 rest, leaves little sign. The toes of the latter, partially 

 united by a membrane, have a curious effect in a foot- 

 print, almost suggestive of a swimming bird. 



The great blackcock has a heavier foot. His hind- 

 claw, too, is down almost on the same plane with the 

 others ; and all the toes, before and behind, are ser- 

 rated at the edge — a sort of comb round each claw. 



The snow is generally too soft at first to show slight 

 points of this sort, but when it is in the state to make 



