THIRD WEEK IN JANUARY 



and their needs must not be forgotten during a time of 

 severe weather. The garden is now full of birds, which 

 flock in from the surrounding fields in a half-starved state. 

 They are fed as soon as it is light with warm food, and 

 again towards the afternoon, for they need enough to last 

 them through the long cold night. Water, too, in shallow 

 pans, they enjoy during a frost, and their antics when taking 

 a bath are very amusing. The tiny blue titmouse, the marsh 

 tits (just like a blue tit gone into slight mourning), the long- 

 tailed tits, and the handsome greater titmouse, with greenish 

 plumage, primrose-yellow breast, and a cap and stole in the 

 richest black velvet, are amongst the most fascinating, and 

 the robins and little blue-birds are so bold as to fly into the 

 room and feed from the hand. They have a cocoanut now, 

 however, and a lump of beef-fat, to supply them with animal 

 food ; and to this store comes the jewelled kingfisher, from 

 the brook in the valley below, for the water is frozen and 

 the waterfalls are turned to icicles. 



Kingfishers are so beautiful that one is glad to help them 

 through the bitter weather ; but this particular bird is not a 

 desirable neighbour where goldfish are kept. Several times 

 we have stocked the small ponds (in which the water-lilies 

 grow) with goldfish, which have disappeared one by one in 

 mysterious fashion, until we found out that our handsome 

 neighbours, the kingfishers, were feeding their nestlings with 

 these delicate morsels, conveying them to the queer dark 

 hole in the bank, uncomfortably lined with fish-bones, in 

 which the young birds are hatched. But to watch the young 

 family taking lessons in fishing from their parents, their 

 exquisite turquoise and emerald tints gleaming in the sun- 

 shine as they dart to and fro over the water, is enough to 

 induce us to grant them forgiveness for their poaching in 

 the garden. 



Goldfinches, chaffinches, titmice, and the lovely bulfinches 

 which now visit us in small flocks enjoy hempseed ; the 

 blackbirds, thrushes, and starlings (all most valuable in 

 the garden) like bread, vegetables, and any scraps from the 

 dinner-table, moistened with hot water ; or a stiff paste 



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