338 "Fainting, Freezing, Dying Alone" 



The latter suffer greatly, and a fortnight of such 

 severe weather is fatal to them. 



I recollect walking by a brook like this, and seeing 

 the blue plumage of a kingfisher perched on a bush. 

 I swung my gun round read}- to shoot as soon as he 

 should fly, but the bird sat still and took no notice of 

 my approach. Astonished at this for the king- 

 fisher sat in such a position as easily to see any one 

 coming ; and these birds generally start immediatel}- 

 they perceive a person I walked swiftly up oppo- 

 site the bush. The bird remained on the bough. I 

 put out the barrel of my gun and touched his ruddy 

 breast with the muzzle : he fell on the ice below. He 

 had been frozen on his perch during the night, and 

 probably died more from starvation than from cold, 

 since it was impossible for him to get at any fish. 



More than once afterwards the same winter I 

 found kingfishers dead on the ice under bushes, lying 

 on their backs with their contracted claws uppermost, 

 having fallen dead from roost. Possibly the one 

 found on the branch may. have been parti}- supported 

 by some small twig. 



That winter snow afterwards fell and became a 

 few inches thick, drifting in places to several feet. 

 Then it was the turn of the other birds and animals 

 to feel the pain of starvation. In the meadows the 

 tracks of rabbits crossed and recrossed till the idea 

 of following their course had to be abandoned. At 

 first sight it seemed as if the snow had suddenly re- 

 vealed the presence of a legion of rabbits where pre- 

 viously no one had suspected the existence of more 

 than a dozen. But in fact a couple of rabbits only 

 will so run to and fro on the snow as to cover a 



