242 Birds in Frost. 



numbers being constantly increased by arrivals 

 from the still more frozen North ; while gulls, on 

 the contrary, are inclined to leave the sea and 

 follow rivers, often to a very considerable distance 

 from their mouths, a fact which is apparent to 

 anyone who has noticed the large number of 

 these birds that have frequented the river "above 

 bridge " during the continuance of the frost. 

 Everyone, however, has not the opportunity of 

 n oticing the habits of water-fowl; but land birds 

 are practically ubiquitous, and can, therefore, 

 be studied by most people. 



As is now well known, most birds are more 

 or less migratory ; even the redbreast, popularly 

 supposed to be a pattern of all the stay-at-home 

 virtues, not being exempt from the habit ; but 

 times of frost and snow make wanderers of many 

 that in open weather would have been content to 

 stay the winter through with us, and the rush of 

 birds of all sorts to the South before the advancing 

 wave of cold during the first few days of the 

 present frost in the latter part of November was 

 most noticeable, and was a sure sign of what was 

 in store for us. Many, again, though they do 

 not leave the country, at such times of hardship 

 become, to adopt Mr. Seebohm's happy expression 

 though perhaps not quite in the sense in which 

 he uses it " gipsy migrants," wandering up and 

 down the country, here to-day and gone to-morrow, 

 in search of food. 



But perhaps the most noticeable effect of long- 



