THE UN SQUEAMISH BIRD 29 



spicuous tenants the field had many others. There 

 were blackbirds and song-thrushes in numbers. 

 Missel-thrushes and fieldfares were abundant, and 

 one little company of redwing, prettiest and 

 trimmest of all the thrushes on the British list, 

 kept in a corner by themselves. All the com- 

 moner finches were present, though on the field 

 surface it took some searching to pick them 

 out. 



The field on the right was also in stubble, and 

 it contained not a single bird. That on the left 

 was ploughed, but, with its surface frozen hard, 

 it was equally tenantless. .What, then, brought all 

 the vast assemblage to the particular field favoured 

 by so many diverse kinds? Simply this, that 

 preparatory to ploughing it the farmer had spread 

 its surface with dung 1 To gulls, rooks, starlings, 

 thrushes, finches, this made it a perfect Eldorado, 

 and with the exception of the gulls, which are 

 among the few birds that seem capable of repose, 

 they were working it with the eagerness of miners 

 in a hurry to get rich. -What they were finding it 

 is difficult to guess. Undigested grain was no 

 doubt part of the treasure. The larvae of flies 

 that live in manure doubtless added variety and 

 succulence to the meal. Perhaps the heat of the 

 fermenting stuff had thawed the ground around the 

 heaps, and opened the door of the birds' great 

 treasure-house, the earth. But whatever it may 

 have been it gave to the field all the alluring 

 qualities of a table well spread, and brought the 

 guests in thousands from far and near. And of 

 disgust not a sign. Probably man is the only 



