210 WILD LIFE IN HARD WEATHER 



instead of promising that a similar loveliness 

 will shortly rest on the fields. 



Vast flocks of wood-pigeons wheel above the 

 trees from end to end of the wood. They pass 

 between the clumps of Scotch firs, and, as they 

 settle simultaneously on the leafless branches 

 around their favourite roosting-places, the flut- 

 tering of their wings seems for the moment like 

 the erratic spinning of a thousand slate-blue 

 leaves. Having alighted on the tallest twigs, 

 the cushats are conspicuous, like points of pale 

 light, against the sombre background of the 

 leafless oaks. Restless, they do not stay for any 

 length of time in one place, but soon move off, 

 and wheel to and fro along their previous lines 

 of flight. Their strange restlessness is, no doubt, 

 induced by hard weather. The cushats have 

 failed to procure their food ; till noon the iron 

 grip of the frost holds the woodlands, and denies 

 to myriads of hungry birds their meagre winter 

 fare. Even the jackdaws and rooks are unable 

 to obtain a meal ; but here and there the carrion 

 crows, wily and omnivorous, find at the margin 

 of the stream a few scraps of refuse wherewith 

 to satisfy their eager appetites, and the lapwings, 

 having come down from the moors, are busy in 

 places where the frost is not so keen as elsewhere, 

 and a trickling brook, hastening to join the river, 

 overflows its muddy banks. As I pass onward, 



