Hard Times for the Birds. 337 



will begin in so faint-hearted a fashion that the ground 

 in the centre of the fields is still soft, and will 'poach' 

 under the hoofs of cattle, while by the hedge it is 

 hard. But by slow degrees the cold increases, and 

 ice begins to form. Again, it will freeze for a week 

 and yet 3-0 u will find very little ice, because all the 

 while there has been a rough wind, and the waves on 

 the lake cannot freeze while in motion. So that a 

 long frost is extremely difficult to foresee. 



But it comes at last. Two really sharp frosts will 

 cause ice thick enough to bear a lad at the edge of 

 the lake ; three will bear a man a few yards out ; 

 four, and it is safe to cross : in a week the ice is be- 

 tween three and four inches thick, and would cany a 

 wagon. The character of ice varies : if some sleet 

 has been falling or snow, which facilitates freezing 

 it is thick in color ; if the wind was still it is 

 dark, sleek, perfectly transparent. It varies, how- 

 ever, in different places, in some having a faint 

 yellowish hue. There are always several places 

 where the ice does not freeze till the last breathing- 

 holes in which the ducks swim ; and where a brook 

 enters it is never quite safe. 



The snipes come now to the brook and water- 

 meadows. Following the course of the stream, field- 

 fares and redwings rise in numbers from every haw- 

 thorn bush, where they have been feeding on the 

 peggles. Blackbirds start out from under the bushes, 

 where there is perhaps a little moist earth still. The 

 foam where there is a slight fall is frozen, and the 

 current runs under a roof of ice ; the white bubbles 

 travel along beneath it. The moor-hens cannot get 

 at the water; neither can the herons or kingfishers. 



