WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 377 



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

 been frozen on his perch during the night, and prob- 

 ably 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 partly 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 follow- 

 ing their course had to be abandoned. At first sight 

 it seemed as if the snow had suddenly revealed the 

 presence of a legion of rabbits where previously 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 meadow with the 

 imprints of their feet looking everjrwhere for a green 

 blade. 



Yet they only occasionally scratch away the snow, 

 and so get at the grass. Though the natural instinct 

 of rabbits is to dig, and though here and there a place 

 may be seen where they appear to have searched for 

 a favourite morsel, yet they do not seem to acquire 

 the sense of systematically clearing snow away. They 

 then bark ash and, indeed, nearly any young sapling 



