WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



front of suburban houses, pecking among the 

 gooseberry-bushes at the back, constantly 

 chased by lapdogs, but constantly returning. 

 They came to the windows for food, and died 

 in gardens, beside roads, and in every field, 

 and along frozen drains.' * 



The loss of bird life during that winter will 

 never be known ; only naturalists can have any 

 idea of the countless throngs that suffered and 

 died. Many kinds were almost exterminated, 

 and in the district where I live birds which 

 used to be common are now scarce. The 

 following spring there were no thrushes singing 

 on the tree- tops ; not a nest could be found. 

 In places where with hardly any hunting I used 

 to find twenty or thirty nests there was not 

 even one ! The blackbirds were represented by 

 just one or two survivors, and that summer it 

 was not necessary to net the fruit for there 

 were no birds to rob it ! 



Though thrushes often get entangled in nets 

 over fruit, they are not really half such thieves as 

 blackbirds. They are chiefly grub-eaters, but 

 blackbirds, there is no denying, are very 

 fond of berries and fruit. Of wild berries 



1 H. M. Wallis, ' Mortality among Birds during the February 

 Frost in West Cornwall' (British Birds, vol. x., 1916-17, p. 267). 

 60 



