360 SPORT IN EUROPE 



visit the British Isles at some period or another of the year ; and 

 how many more members of the feathered tribe are 

 -^. , migratory than the majority of people think! When 



the snow lies on the ground at Christmas, which are 

 the birds that hop outside the window-sill begging for crumbs or 

 some few necessaries of life ? Very few of our many little friends, 

 when one comes to think of it. Of course, the crow, with his cousin 

 the jackdaw, and his second cousin once removed, the starling, the 

 bold little robin, the chattering, irrepressible sparrow, the thrush and 

 the blackbird, and, unless we include the game birds and the hawk 

 tribe, that is about all. All the tit tribe, the swallows, and the wrens 

 have vanished ; and what these creatures of nature have been doing 

 for centuries, men have been doing, following their example in com- 

 paratively quite recent years, namely wintering South. 



It will be noticed that the birds that remain with us through the 

 long winter days are invariably birds that live on at least two distinct 

 classes of food. The crow tribe are not particular, as everyone knows; 

 the sparrow patronises the stable-yard and the dustbin, where he 

 frequently meets his friend, the robin ; while the thrush and the 

 blackbird live on a nice fruit diet through the summer, much to the 

 disgust of the gardener, and during the winter search for worms. 

 Nor is it, I think, widely known how many of these creatures perish 

 when a severe winter sets in, and frost binds the orround in her iron 



grip, and all seeds, all herbs and all worms are im- 

 In Winter. 



prisoned. We are accustomed to hear people say, 



" How tame all the birds are becoming!", and they put it down very 



often to their individual system of feeding them from the dining- 



