200 BIRD WATCHING 



a vast quantity of thistle-heads, poppy-pods, campion, 

 columbine, and all sorts of other plants and flowers 

 that have been garnered in with the harvest. Small 

 birds come down on this in flocks, and where the slope 

 of the heap on one side joins the stack, one should 

 make in the latter, by a process of pulling out and 

 pressing in, a nice cosy cavern just big enough to 

 squeeze into. On the floor of this one should lay 

 a shawl or plaid, and then, enveloping oneself in 

 another, enter it backwards, and, kicking one's legs 

 farther into the body of the stack so as to be out of the 

 way, pull down the straw over the aperture, arranging 

 it thinly just in front of one's face so as to have a good 

 outlook. Even on the coldest morning one is warm 

 and comfortable under such circumstances, and the 

 snow without and frosted stalks that one's near breath 

 is thawing, make one feel all the warmer. It is for 

 warmth, indeed, that such an ensconcement is prin- 

 cipally needed, for on days like this small birds, at any 

 rate, will come within a few paces of one, if only one 

 sits still. Even when one walks up to the stack in 

 broad daylight, they only fly round to another side of 

 it, and one has scarcely settled oneself before they 

 begin to come again. But hidden thus before " black 

 night " has ceased to " steal the colours from things," 

 one may have stragglers from the main crowd within 

 the length of one's arm, and I have even tried catching 

 one for the bizarrerie of the thing by gliding my 

 hand stealthily through the loose straw underneath 

 it. The attempt failed, but I believe such a feat would 

 be quite possible. 



As the light begins to creep upon the darkness and 

 the world to grow more and more white, the arrivals 



