THE LOST FALCON 163 



which looked even richer than usual on the white 

 snow ; and the strength and agility of the partridges, 

 shown in the difficult task they had of dragging out 

 deeply embedded straws, was very remarkable. 



Besides the rooks and partridges, hundreds of smaller 

 birds crowd round the stacks. On the sunny side, the 

 ground is black with a fluttering, feathery mass of 

 chaffinches, with a few linnets and greenfinches among 

 them. After the recent snow had lain upon the 

 ground for a week, these poor little creatures became 

 so tame that we could not even drive them a few yards 

 off, for the purpose of noting the wing-marks which 

 they leave when rising, perfect casts of the wing- 

 stroke being sometimes left on the soft snow. They 

 flew round us at a distance of a yard or so, and nothing 

 would induce them to leave even for a moment the 

 only spot where food could be obtained. Except the 

 hawks and carrion-crows, none but grain-eating birds 

 remain upon the hill. The rooks, which are not solely 

 grain-eaters, do not thrive on a corn diet, and are 

 obliged to cast up the outer husks of the wheat and 

 barley, just as hawks and owls do the bones and 

 feathers of birds. Even for those which, like the 

 chaffinches and greenfinches, prefer corn, it is a hard 

 matter to find enough. In good weather, the stock of 

 food is so abundant that most land birds, except hawks, 

 feed but twice a day, early in the morning and in the 

 afternoon. In the snow they feed all day long. From 

 dawn till dark the crowd round the stacks never lessens, 

 and they feed until even the light reflected from the 



