BIRD LIFE 



Walking through bare fields in the chill and 

 birdless world some winter days, it is brought 

 home to us what an essential feature of our sur- 

 roundings the birds are, what a lack there is when 

 they are absent! A certain poverty lies over the 

 earth; the sky is no longer complete without a 

 swift or a martin. Birds are part of the landscape; 

 it is they which animate it. Rarely, when it seems 

 most destitute, a flock of snow-buntings will come 

 swirling over the pasture, like great snowflakes 

 driven before the blast. Again, as the wind will 

 pick up dry snow and blow it over the field, they 

 are off and whirling away, glittering in the pale 

 yellow light of the winter day as they wheel and 

 come to the ground. But their presence has re- 

 deemed and softened the austere landscape, made 

 the earth habitable once more and the bare fields 

 friendly and companionable. 



The first snipe and plover in the spring remind 

 us what stay-at-homes are we, what wanderers 



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