158 1(AfMBLES OF A VOtMINIS 



there is movement still. And when among the boughs 

 the shadows deepen, and grey mists gather on the wooded 

 slope; when there sounds no more the twitter of the 

 robins, and restless blackbirds are quieted at last, still on 

 the dead leaves patter everywhere the light feet of mice 

 and shrews. 



Most woodland birds retire at nightfall to the covert 

 of the ivy, to holes in walls and trees, or to boughs of 

 sheltering fir. Others, content with the open hedgerow, 

 rely on their own coats to keep them warm. Some 

 huddle together for the sake of warmth, and at such 

 times it has been observed that there is keen competition 

 for an inside place, and that when a row of tits, for 

 instance, has settled down to sleep upon a branch, the 

 anxiety to avoid an end seat in the line keeps the whole 

 company in continual movement. 



Many birds again that seldom or never perch on trees 

 spend the night upon the ground the skylark and his 

 clan, the partridge, and many of the waders. Rooks, too, 

 have been seen apparently collected for the night among 

 the furrows of an open field. The pheasant roosts in 

 winter in a tree, and thus on moonlight nights he falls 

 an easy prey to the black art of the poacher. Some of 

 the wading birds the dunlins and the plovers, whose 

 plaintive notes are heard all night along the shore 

 probably sleep during part of the day upon the water. 

 Gannets have been found at night thus rocked to sleep 

 upon the sea, overtaken perhaps by the darkness while 

 far from their island haunts. 



But, over the low lands by the river, birds keep vigil 



